Sharif Digital Repository

MapReduce and its open source implementation, Hadoop, have gained widespread adoption for parallel processing of big data jobs. Since the number of such big data jobs is also rapidly rising, reducing their energy consumption is increasingly more important to reduce environmental impact as well as operational costs. Prior work by Mashayekhy et al. (IEEE Trans. Parallel Distributed Syst. 26, 2720–2733, 2016), has tackled the problem of energy-aware scheduling of a single MapReduce job but we provide a far more efficient heuristic in this paper. We first model the problem as an Integer Linear Program to find the optimal solution using ILP solvers. Then we present a task-based greedy scheduling... 

This paper provides empirical evidence on a novel complementarity between VAT and trade taxes. Downstream domestic firms require VAT receipts from importers to claim VAT on purchases, increasing incentives for honest reporting of imports. Trade gap, the difference between mirror and domestic trade reports in Iran at 6-digit HS disaggregation, is used to measure this complementarity. Iran introduced VAT in 2008 and, since then, has increased its rate from 3 to 9 percent. Difference-in-differences estimates show that a 1 percentage point increase in the VAT rate reduces the trade gap by about 2 percent. Consistent with the compliance mechanisms for VAT, a smaller effect for consumer products... 

A very efficient and mild procedure for the trimethylsilylation of a wide variety of alcohols, including primary, allylic, benzylic, secondary, hindered secondary, tertiary, and phenols with hexamethyldisilazane on the surface of silica gel dispersed with LiClO4 in room temperature at few minutes in excellent yields under neutral conditions is reported. This procedure also allows the excellent selectivity under LP-SiO2 system for silylation of alcohols in the presence of amine and phenolic hydroxy groups  

The recently reported UNIversal QUAsiChemical Segment Activity coefficient (UNIQUAC-SAC) model [developed by Haghtalab and Yousefi Seyf Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2015, 54, 8611] provides a practical thermodynamic framework to be used in VLE, LLE, and SLE calculations. The UNIQUAC-SAC model has the advantage of being independent of area (q) and volume (r) structural parameters used in the combinatorial part. While the UNIFAC or UNIFAC-DMD could not apply to the 47% (44 of 94) of the studied molecules because of the undefined groups. Here, the numbers of solvents with identified segment numbers were extended from 82 to 130 with a slight refinement to the previous values. The model parameters... 

Recently, moment dual approach of sums of squares relaxations developed for polynomial optimization problems was successfully extended to optimization problems with polynomial matrix inequality constraints. In this paper, we first derive an efficient polynomial formulization for matrix rank minimization problem which does not add any slack variable or additional equality or inequality constraint. Using the aforementioned theory, then we propose a hierarchy of convex LMI relaxations to provide a sequence of increasingly tight lower bounds on the global minimum rank of an arbitrary matrix under linear and polynomial matrix inequality constraints. Surprisingly enough, these lower bounds are... 

The perturbed chain-statistical associating fluid theory equation of state (PC-SAFT EoS) is one of the state-of-the-art thermodynamic models used in the phase equilibrium calculation of associating mixtures, in particular, in the pharmaceutical industry. Accordingly, parametrization of the PC-SAFT EoS for approved solvents reviewed for use in pharmaceutical process design by the International Conference on Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) was done in the present study. First, the PeC-SAFT EoS model parameters for 41 pure solvents were regressed (of 62 solvents). The available high-quality binary vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE)... 

Data aggregation is a key, yet time-consuming functionality introduced to conserve energy in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In this paper, to minimize time latency, we focus on aggregation scheduling problem and propose an efficient distributed algorithm that generates a collision-free schedule with the least number of time slots. In contrast to others, our approach named FAST mainly contributes to both tree construction, where the former studies employ Connected 2-hop Dominating Sets, and aggregation scheduling that was previously addressed through the Competitor Sets computation. We prove that the latency of FAST under the protocol interference model is upper-bounded by 12R+Δ-2, where R... 

Background: Once aligned, long-reads can be a useful source of information to identify the type and position of structural variations. However, due to the high sequencing error of long reads, long-read structural variation detection methods are far from precise in low-coverage cases. To be accurate, they need to use high-coverage data, which in turn, results in an extremely time-consuming pipeline, especially in the alignment phase. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to have a structural variation calling pipeline which is both fast and precise for low-coverage data. Results: In this paper, we present SVNN, a fast yet accurate, structural variation calling pipeline for PacBio long-reads... 

Background: Once aligned, long-reads can be a useful source of information to identify the type and position of structural variations. However, due to the high sequencing error of long reads, long-read structural variation detection methods are far from precise in low-coverage cases. To be accurate, they need to use high-coverage data, which in turn, results in an extremely time-consuming pipeline, especially in the alignment phase. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to have a structural variation calling pipeline which is both fast and precise for low-coverage data. Results: In this paper, we present SVNN, a fast yet accurate, structural variation calling pipeline for PacBio long-reads... 

A new predictive model for evaluating the vibration of a sawing machine was developed using a new rock classification system. The predictors are machine parameters and a rock sawability index. The new rock classification system includes four major parameters of the rock: uniaxial compressive strength, abrasivity index, mean Moh's hardness, and Young's modulus. The FAHP approach was used when determining the weights of these parameters by six decision makers. Two groups of carbonate rocks were sawn using a fully-instrumented laboratory sawing rig at different feed rates and depths of cut. During the sawing trials system vibration was monitored as a measure of saw performance. Then, a new... 

The prediction of production rate in ornamental stones sawing is very important in cost estimation and process planning of the rock sawing plants. The main aim of this paper is finding a mathematical correlation between production rate and rock brittleness indexes. The utilized data have been collected from several stone factories in Iran. Seventeen different granite and carbonate rocks have been experienced sawing conditions with large-diameter circular saws. The laboratory tests such as uniaxial compressive strength and tensile strength, were carried out on the rock samples which were collected from these factories. The ratio of compressive strength to tensile strength (B1), the ratio of... 

While import taxes are easier to levy, there is increasingly more evidence that importers engage in trade tax evasion. The literature uses, trade gap, the difference between reports from the two ends of a trade link, as a proxy for illegal imports. Many papers have found a robust positive correlation between import tax rates and the trade gap. However, like any other tax, importers could avoid paying import duties through legal provisions. Such opportunities are abundant in Iran and could impose a downward bias on the evasion elasticity estimates. Using disaggregated trade reports from 21 partners and Iran Customs Administration from 2004 to 2013, we show three results. First, a... 

The present study reports synthesis of BaFe12O19 nanoparticles by sol gel technique followed by its characterization using Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-Ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) analysis, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The BaFe12O19 nanoparticles have been applied to construct a modified graphite screen-printed electrode (GSPE). BaFe12O19/GSPE has been applied as a working electrode in the analysis of tramadol and acetaminophen by voltammetric techniques. The BaFe12O19/GSPE showed a good selectiveness for analysis of tramadol in the presence of acetaminophen with the... 

Morphine is a strong opioid used for the treatment of moderate to severe pain. Its use is, however, associated with adverse effects including sedation, nausea, constipation, respiratory depression, and development of tolerance as well as dependence. Thus, in this work electrochemical oxidation of morphine has been done on BaFe12O19 nanoparticles of the modified electrode. BaFe12O19 nanoparticles of the modified graphite screen-printed electrode (GSPE) and the bare GSPE were compared, representing that the modified electrode takes advantages of higher sensitivities and selectivities with lower limit of detection. Differential pulse voltammetric procedure has been used to analyze data. Results... 

Metal matrix composites (MMCs) have received considerable attention due to their excellent engineering properties, but their poor machinability has been the main deterrent to their substitution for metal parts. Optimization of machining parameters such as cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut will improve the machinability of this material. This paper represents application of artificial neural network (ANN) model and genetic algorithm to study the machinability aspects of Al/SiC-15% produced by powder metallurgy process and to obtain optimum machining conditions. A multilayer feed forward ANN has been employed to study the effect of machining parameters on three aspects of machinablity,... 

Lifetime is the most important concern in wireless sensor networks due to limited battery power of sensor nodes. In this paper, we focus on designing an energy-efficient and energy-aware routing algorithm, LLR, to increase the operational lifetime of multi-hop wireless sensor networks in the presence of unreliable communication links. Our proposed protocol utilizes a parameter, Broadcasting Delay, in each node associated with the hop parameters passed by a route request packet to select long lifetime paths in the network. The key point in Broadcasting Delay formulation is that it includes both node and link specific parameters. We use two different scenarios: either the link layer... 

Burr in drilling plays an important role on product quality, so analysis the burr height is essential at the final production. This paper presents the application of Taguchi method for survey the burr height by adding ultrasonic vibration to the process. In this paper L18 orthogonal array based on Taguchi techniques was used in the design of experiments. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to determination the effect of drilling parameter on burr formation. Influence of spindle speed, feed rate and percentage of SiC particle was investigated in with and without ultrasonic assisted drilling. In this paper drilling of Al/SiCp MMCs with 5, 15 and 20 wt% of particulate SiC in dry drilling... 

The approximation power of general feedforward neural networks with piecewise linear activation functions is investigated. First, lower bounds on the size of a network are established in terms of the approximation error and network depth and width. These bounds improve upon state- of-the-art bounds for certain classes of functions, such as strongly convex functions. Second, an upper bound is established on the difference of two neural networks with identical weights but different activation functions. © The Author(s) 2018  

The non-randomness two-liquid (NRTL) activity coefficient model and its variants are widely used in phase equilibria calculations. In the present study, the number of main groups of the NRTL-FAC (GC-NRTL) model (Fluid Phase Equilibria, 541:113088, 2021), was extended from 50 to 66 (including 125 subgroups). 160 molecules containing 3318 binary vapor–liquid-equilibrium (VLE) data sets (54,689 data points) were used in the extension of the model. That is, the main groups including DOH, ACRY, ClC = C, COO, ACCN, NCO, Anhydrides, ACCHO, ACCOOH, OCCOH, Lactames, Lactones, Peroxides, CF3H, CF3Cl, and CF4 were added to the main group list of the GC-NRTL model. In addition, the temperature... 

Respiratory drug delivery has been under the research spotlight for the past few decades, mainly due to the high incidence of pulmonary diseases and the fact that this type of delivery offers the highest efficiency for treatment. Despite its invaluable benefits, there are some major drawbacks to respiratory drug delivery, the most important of which being poor delivery efficiency and relatively high drug deposition in undesirable regions, such as the mouth cavity. One way to improve the efficiency of respiratory drug delivery with metered-dose inhalers is placing a respiratory spacer between the inhaler exit and the mouth. It is argued that high drug deposition in the immediate airways of...