Sharif Digital Repository

Group 6 transition metal dichalcogenides (G6-TMDs), most notably MoS2, MoSe2, MoTe2, WS2 and WSe2, constitute an important class of materials with a layered crystal structure. Various types of G6-TMD nanomaterials, such as nanosheets, nanotubes and quantum dot nano-objects and flower-like nanostructures, have been synthesized. High thermodynamic stability under ambient conditions, even in atomically thin form, made nanosheets of these inorganic semiconductors a valuable asset in the existing library of two-dimensional (2D) materials, along with the well-known semimetallic graphene and insulating hexagonal boron nitride. G6-TMDs generally possess an appropriate bandgap (1-2 eV) which is... 

Primal-Dual Interior-Point Methods (IPMs) have shown their power in solving large classes of optimization problems. In this paper a self-regular proximity based Infeasible Interior Point Method (IIPM) is proposed for linear optimization problems. First we mention some interesting properties of a specific self-regular proximity function, studied recently by Peng and Terlaky, and use it to define infeasible neighborhoods. These simple but interesting properties of the proximity function indicate that, when the current iterate is in a large neighborhood of the central path, large-update IIPMs emerge as the only natural choice. Then, we apply these results to design a specific self-regularity... 

Alluring optical and electronic properties have made organometallic halide perovskites attractive candidates for optoelectronics. Among all perovskite materials, inorganic CsPbX3 (X is halide) in black cubic phase has triggered enormous attention recently owing to its comparable photovoltaic performance and high stability as compared to organic and hybrid perovskites. However, cubic phase stabilization at room temperature for CsPbI3 still survives as a challenge. Herein we report all inorganic three-dimensional vertical CsPbI3 perovskite nanowires (NWs) synthesized inside anodic alumina membrane (AAM) by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. It was discovered that the as-grown NWs have... 

This research explored the influences of shielding gases on the appearance of weld beads and the microstructures and mechanical properties of thin-wall samples using conventional gas metal arc welding as the heat source by using 5356 aluminium alloy welding wire as the raw materials and nitrogen (N2) and argon (Ar) as the shielding gases. The results showed that under the same parameters and after mono-layer single-bead welding was performed using N2 as the shielding gas, the bead height was higher, the bead width was narrower, and the penetration depth was shallower. The grain size of the thin-wall sample protected by N2 was 43.5–47.8 % smaller than that obtained under Ar protection.... 

Zeolitic imidazole frameworks (ZIFs) provide an exciting platform to design and fabricate non-precious-metal carbon-based catalysts for oxygen reduction/evolution reaction (ORR/OER). Herein, we elaborately design a facile enzyme-assisted synthetic strategy that enables to tailor the ZIFs precursors into structural stable decussation shape, which derived Co nanoislands grafted on decussate N-doped carbon nanoleaves (D-Co@NC) can well retain the interpenetrating nanostructure. Benefiting from the combined advantages of compositions and interpenetrating nanostructures, D-Co@NC possesses 5.2 times higher exposed electrochemical active area than the conventional dodecahedral one, thus endowing... 

In this paper, we consider a wireless cooperative network with a wireless-powered energy harvesting (EH) relay. The relay employs a time switching (TS) policy that switches between the EH and data decoding (DD) modes. Both energy and data buffers are kept at the relay to store the harvested energy and decoded data packets, respectively. In this paper, we derive static and dynamic TS policies that maximize the system throughput or minimize the average transmission delay. In particular, in the static policies, the EH or DD mode is selected with a pre-determined probability. In contrast, in a dynamic policy, the mode is selected dynamically according to the states of data and energy buffers. We... 

We propose two nonlinear regression methods, namely, Adversarial Orthogonal Regression (AdOR) for additive noise models and Adversarial Orthogonal Structural Equation Model (AdOSE) for the general case of structural equation models. Both methods try to make the residual of regression independent from regressors, while putting no assumption on noise distribution. In both methods, two adversarial networks are trained simultaneously where a regression network outputs predictions and a loss network that estimates mutual information (in AdOR) and KL-divergence (in AdOSE). These methods can be formulated as a minimax two-player game; at equilibrium, AdOR finds a deterministic map between inputs... 

We consider the problem of learning causal models from observational data generated by linear non-Gaussian acyclic causal models with latent variables. Without considering the effect of latent variables, the inferred causal relationships among the observed variables are often wrong. Under faithfulness assumption, we propose a method to check whether there exists a causal path between any two observed variables. From this information, we can obtain the causal order among the observed variables. The next question is whether the causal effects can be uniquely identified as well. We show that causal effects among observed variables cannot be identified uniquely under mere assumptions of... 

The formation of macroporous bioactive hydroxyapatite(HA) coatings using polytetrafluoroethylene(PTFE) particles were studied. The porous HA coatings were prepared onto a pure titanium substrate by electrophoretic deposition(EPD) at 120 V for 1.5 min using ethanol suspensions mixture of HA (500 nm in size) and PTFE (1-3 μm in size) particles. Subsequently, the composite coatings obtained by EPD were heated at 900 °C for 60 min to disintegrate the organic PTFE particles and sinter the inorganic HA particles. The calcinations of the PTFE led to the formation of porosity in the HA coating. These results demonstrate a new method for creating porous HA coatings on titanium. © 2006 Elsevier B.V.... 

Porous surface on titanium induces apatite formation in simulated body fluid (SBF). This work shows alkaline, acid and polishing treatment, which lead to create apatite coating. Specimens were soaked in 5 M solution of NaOH, 85% HCl-6% HF-9% H3PO4 and 2% HF-4% HNO3-94% H2O. Also many samples were polished with sandpaper. Specimens treated under the above conditions were soaked in simulated body fluid (SBF) for 5 days. Apatite formed within 5 days. The evaluation of Ca/P ratio of samples were made by EDAX analysis to get information of the Ca/P ratio. The values obtained for the apatite were in the range of 1.55, which is near to the stoichiometric value of apatite, for the sample, which was... 

The power control of horizontal axis wind turbines can affect significantly the vibration loads and fatigue life of the tower and the blades. In this paper, we both consider the power control and vibration load mitigation of the tower fore-aft vibration. For this purpose, at first, we developed a fully coupled model of the NREL 5MW turbine. This model considers the full aeroelastic behaviour of the blades and tower and is validated by experiment results, comparing the time history data with the FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence) code which is developed by NREL (National Renewable Energy Lab in the United States). In the next, novel sensorless control algorithms are... 

Cloud Internet of Things (CIoT) environments, as the essential basis for computing services, have been subject to abuses and cyber threats. The adversaries constantly search for vulnerable areas in such computing environments to impose their damages and create complex challenges. Hence, using intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPSs) is almost mandatory for securing CIoT environments. However, the existing IDPSs in this area suffer from some limitations, such as incapability of detecting unknown attacks and being vulnerable to the single point of failure. In this paper, we propose a novel distributed multi-agent IDPS (DMAIDPS) that overcomes these limitations. The learning agents in... 

In the current work, the role of Co and Ag co-doping on the electric, optical, and sensing performance of tin dioxide nano particles was investigated. Hydrothermally (co-)precipitation of the dopants was utilized to fabricate pure SnO2 and Sn0.96-xCo0.04AgxO2 (x = 0, 0.02, 0.04) nanoparticles. The crystal structure and microstructure of SnO2 particles was almost unchanged although Co-Ag co-doping reduced particle size from 51.8 nm to 41.6 nm and the unit cell dimensions changed. Overall, Co and Ag resulted in significant rise in oxygen vacancy of SnO2 so that defects compensate unbalanced electron charge induced by dopants. It was also figured out that Co-Ag co-doping improved the... 

Cloud Internet of Things (CIoT) environments, as the essential basis for computing services, have been subject to abuses and cyber threats. The adversaries constantly search for vulnerable areas in such computing environments to impose their damages and create complex challenges. Hence, using intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPSs) is almost mandatory for securing CIoT environments. However, the existing IDPSs in this area suffer from some limitations, such as incapability of detecting unknown attacks and being vulnerable to the single point of failure. In this paper, we propose a novel distributed multi-agent IDPS (DMAIDPS) that overcomes these limitations. The learning agents in... 

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is one of the promising and effective approaches to establishing network virtualization by providing a central controller to monitor network bandwidth and transmission devices. This paper studies resource allocation in SDN by mapping virtual networks on the infrastructure network. Considering mapping as a way to distribute tasks through the network, proper mapping methodologies will directly influence the efficiency of infrastructure resource management. Our proposed method is called Effective Initial Mapping in SDN (EIMSDN), and it suggests writing a module in the controller to initialize mapping by arriving at a new request if a sufficient number of... 

Online social networks, World Wide Web, media, and technological networks, and other types of so-called information networks are ubiquitous nowadays. These information networks are inherently heterogeneous and dynamic. They are heterogeneous as they consist of multi-Typed objects and relations, and they are dynamic as they are constantly evolving over time. One of the challenging issues in such heterogeneous and dynamic environments is to forecast those relationships in the network that will appear in the future. In this article, we try to solve the problem of continuous-Time relationship prediction in dynamic and heterogeneous information networks. This implies predicting the time it takes... 

We study the problem of multi-user dynamic searchable symmetric encryption (DMUSSE) where a data owner stores its encrypted documents on an untrusted remote server and wishes to selectively allow multiple users to access them by issuing keyword search queries. Specifically, we consider the case where some of the users may be corrupted and colluding with the server to extract additional information about the dataset (beyond what they have access to). We provide the first formal security definition for the dynamic setting as well as forward and backward privacy definitions. We then propose SE, the first provably secure DMUSSE scheme and instantiate it in two versions, one based on oblivious... 

Rockfall is a significant hazard to sites that are located at the foot of rock slopes. In such sites, there is a notable need to evaluate the potential for rockfall, estimate the extent of areas at risk, and design retaining structures to reduce the risk of rockfall-induced. This paper presents a probabilistic framework for predicting the formation and progression of rockfalls and for evaluating the performance of retaining walls under rockfalls. To this end, first a probabilistic model for the rock projectile motion on a slope is presented. The model accounts for prevailing uncertainties, i.e., the trigger points, rock shape, projectile path, and slope material properties, which include... 

Online monitoring of HV XLPE cables is a major interest for utilities. Due to severe and rapid risk of life of this type of cable with occurrence of partial discharges, studies are carried out for detection and location of PD. However there is a lack of models that can help to accurately detect the partial discharge and its location in installed cables, due to the relatively long length and the load condition of cable. Detection and location of any partial discharge signal requires: A verified knowledge of phenomena which contributes to P.D. propagation and its deformation, measured data of P.D. type signal propagation on different cable test setups, accurate frequency dependent cable model...