Sharif Digital Repository

Weed management is the important issue in agriculture. Using herbicides is one of the strategies to control weed. But using huge amount of herbicides are destructive for environment. Smart spraying system is an impressive solution for this problem. This system detects weeds and sprays just them instead of spraying overall field. In this thesis a new method for plant detection is presented by using Lab color space. We determine the type of plants (broadleaf/grass) to spray specific herbicides onto specific type of plant. One feature of grass plants (the parallel edges of leaf) is used to detect grass plants. A convolutional neural network with four layers and fuzzy logic are used to separate... 

The goal of this study is to investigate the effect of events such as earthquakes on businesses. Earthquakes can have a significant impact on the performance and profitability of businesses. Earthquakes can negatively affect the functionality of community infrastructure systems by damaging their components and this disruption in the functionality of the lifelines of the community can negatively affect the businesses that are dependent on their functionality. In addition, earthquakes will cause casualties and injuries, leading to a decrease in the workforce and the customers’ population. In such a situation, the activity of many businesses is disrupted and even stopped, which in turn has many... 

In recent years with the increase of cellular phone subscribers, demand for high capacity networks is inevitable. For this reason, different methods have been proposed to increase the channel capacity. One method which has become popular in recent years is utilizing of Smart Antenna Systems. Smart antennas basically attempt to enhance the desired signal power and suppress the interferers by beamforming toward the DOA (direction-of-arrival) of the desired signal and nullsteering in the interferences’ DOAs. Smart Antennas first find the direction of signal sources, and then put the main gain toward the desired signal and put the nulls toward unwanted signals. As a result, we can obtain the... 

Pipelines are the preferred means for transporting of liquid or gas phase materials. The economy of many countries is extremely dependent upon a large network of pipelines systems to transport and distribute the nation’s energy resources. Damages to the pipe structure may cause leakage and result in economic losses or even loss of life. Developing methods for detecting the anomalies and damages to the structure before they lead to catastrophic events is vital. Multiple pipeline misadventures over the past several years have resulted in hundreds of fatalities and billions of dollars in property damages. These accidents demonstrate that the current monitoring methods are not sufficient... 

High speed data converter are very often used in telecommunication systems. Since these systems are increasingly used in mobile foem reducing the power consumption in these circuits is of great importance. The goal of this project was to design a pipeline 10 bit converter for a sample rate 200MS/s with a power consumption of 35 mW for the input level of 1Vp-p and a 1.8V power supply in 0.18um CMOS technology.
To reach these goals, a number of low power techniqes are proposed in various levels of abstraction. In system level, the sampling and feedback capacitors is optimized analytically which leads to simple back-envelope formulas to calculate the optimum values. In circuit level, a... 

High resolution and low power analog to digital converters are used in wireless communication receivers, Sensor Networks and Medical Instrumentations. Reducing power consumption at a high conversion rate is one of the most basic challenges for these converters. Pipelined SAR structure is considered for 40-50 MS/s and 10-12 bits, and is of interest because of consuming low power and using a small area. Besides using Pipelined SAR structure, circuit level and system level modifications are also proposed to decrease the power consumption. The ADC is designed in 0.18µm CMOS technology with 1.2v supply voltage. The results show 4.5mW power consumption, when ENOB is 11.04bit, which is very low... 

One of the great challenges of food industry is the lack of packing materials which can disperse active compositions properly for variety of applications; therefore an antioxidant/antibacterial release system of poly lactic acid in a specific time is a necessity for being used in food packing industry. Most of the researches have been done in the field of drug release system, yet numbers of researches done in the field of food industry are rare. Rate of antibacterial/antioxidant release from polymeric film is relatively fast also calculated based on Fick’s second law of diffusion; therefore primary poly lactic acid is modified by adding ameliorative agents such as poly ethylene glycol and... 

Project cost overrun is one of the most frequently occurring issues in the construction industry. Past research studies have investigated the project cost overrun problem from various perspectives. However, to date, only a few studies have focused on the identification of the root causes of projects cost overruns. A close review of these studies reveals that the studies often provide limited insight into the root causes of project cost overrun. These studies fail to consider the impact of project delivery system as a defining project characteristic that may influence construction cost overruns. In addition, past studies have relied on surveys that are not necessarily precise and highly... 

In this study, reform strategies to enhance private sector participation in infrastructure projects is provided. The study is presented in the form of words that government institutions could use in the highest level. the pattern used for this study is based on system thinking in which all components are in causal relationship with each other. It was made effort to policies and upstream objectives of the country be respected. To provide research content, content analysis of successful experiences in the world was done. Finally, obtained strategies was presented to the experts, reformed and important cases was investigated. Lack of information and difficult access to country's infrastructure... 

Few years ago, when people were talking about image sensors, the minds were automatically focusing on the pictures and photos that were/are taken for recording the memories. Nowadays, however, image sensors have prominent and unbelievable role in different aspects of our life, which "image" is only representing part of this role. A wide variety of applications image sensors can be enumerated such as, Scientific, security, medical, machine vision, ITs, biometrics, automotive, etc. To evaluate the quality of an image sensor, there are different parameters, from the dynamic range, high resolution and suitable speed to low noise, low power consumption and other parameters. The art of companies... 

In earthquake-prone communities, the post-earthquake functionality of hospitals is crucial. Hospitals can dramatically reduce earthquake casualties if they can remain functional and retain service continuity. A variety of earthquake-induced problems such as damage to hospital components, unavailability of medical staff, disruption in medicine supply, and failure of supporting infrastructure systems can negatively affect the functionality of a hospital. Hospital administrators and facility managers require appropriate tools to assess the effect of these problems on hospital functionality. This research presents a probabilistic framework to assess the functionality of hospitals following... 

FIDIC as a proposed model for a contract and including patterns of regular international contract projects. In Iran, many giant construction projects such as petroleum projects, power plants, roads and water networks was signed based on FIDIC contract pattern and These projects have been faced with many challenges .The main challenges for this contract are not ready. Improper translation of the original, traditional look owners to contractors, FIDIC modern approach depends on the project parties (owner - Consulting - contractors), Iran's judicial laws, lack of private land ownership and the absence of allocated budget that indicates the appropriate use of this model contracts in Iran. To... 

Infrastructure systems play a critical role in the economic and social activities of a community. Effective and continuous performance of these infrastructure systems is essential to the welfare and prosperity of the communities. Infrastructure systems comprise networks of interdependent assets that are built through a long and costly process. These assets are subject to a variety of factors that reduce the performance and reliability over time. These factors also increase the vulnerability of infrastructure assets in face of future probable hazards. In order to ensure the continuous and uninterrupted performance of infrastructure assets in post-hazard situations, asset managers should plan... 

The aim of this research is to examine and propose solutions for financing projects aimed at reducing vulnerability in the oil industry's infrastructure against earthquakes and enhancing their seismic resilience. Design and construction issues, as well as the gradual deterioration of oil infrastructure, increase their vulnerability to earthquakes. Earthquakes can disrupt the proper and continuous functioning of these infrastructures by causing damage. Such disruptions or interruptions in the performance of oil industry infrastructure can have significant economic and social consequences. To mitigate these damages, investment in vulnerability reduction measures is essential. Financing... 

Asset management involves making decisions related to selecting the most cost-effective asset improvement strategies. There is an increasing interest of risk-based approaches in the field of asset management. During the asset life various risk factors might influence the asset performance and the maintenance cost, therefore, it is important to incorporate these risk factors, which affect the necessity and timing of various activities. This study develops a systemic risk-based asset management methodology (framework) to manage the maintenance of infrastructure assets. This paper presents an overview of uncertainty problems in cost estimating of bridge in the future and also discusses... 

The construction industry is faced with the problem of growing number of claims. If not settled, claims may lead to dispute among parties. Researchers have investigated claims from various perspectives. Nevertheless, more studies should be conducted in order to enhance the understanding about the root-causes of construction claims. The objective of this study is to utilize a systematic and well-structured methodology based on literature review, survey and interviews with experts in order to identify and classify the root-causes of claims of contractors as well as the situations that give rise to construction claims. Moreover, this study contributes to the claim terminology by distinguishing... 

The aim of this research is presentation of A framework to select the appropriate combination of retrofit and insurance in order to reduce earthquake losses. The vulnerability of buildings to earthquakes can lead to significant damage to owners and residents of these buildings. It is imperative that appropriate measures be taken to reduce these adverse effects before the risk occurs. Some of these measures, such as seismic retrofit of buildings, can reduce the vulnerability of buildings and, consequently, financial and human losses. Some other measures like insurance, in the event of an earthquake, can reduce the financial losses incurred by owners and residents of vulnerable buildings.... 

The millimeter wave (mmWave) band, a prime candidate for 5G cellular networks, seems attractive for wireless energy harvesting since it will feature large antenna arrays and extremely dense base station (BS) deployments. The viability of mmWave for energy harvesting though is unclear, due to the differences in propagation characteristics, such as extreme sensitivity to building blockages. But in this research, a scenario is considered in which low-power devices extract energy and/or information from the mmWave signals. Using stochastic geometry, analytical expressions are derived for the energy coverage probability, the average harvested power, and the overall (energy-and-information)... 

In recent years the advent of internet and web has transformed the process of data collection and make organizational and environmental data more accessible. On the one hand, many organizations have realized that the knowledge in these huge databases is key to supporting the various organizational decisions. Particularly, the knowledge about customers from these databases is critical for the marketing function. But, much of this useful knowledge is hidden and untapped. On the other hand, the intense competition and increased choices available for customers have created new pressures on marketing decision-makers and there has emerged a need to manage customers in a long-term relationship.... 

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are a type of marine vehicles which are currently being used for exploration, maintenance, repairing of marine structures and military appliances. Unmanned underwater vehicles categorize in two types: ROVs and AUVs, ROVs (remotely operated vehicles) usually are connected to the mother vessel with a cable, conduction signals transfer through this cable and there is an operator in the control loop. The vehicle may be fed up with this cable, AUVs are modern underwater vehicles which the operator on controlling and conducting is removed, there is no connection between the vehicle and mother vessel, energy sources and controlling orders are set up in the...