Sharif Digital Repository

Discrete-time Markov Chains (MCs) and Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) are two standard formalisms in system analysis. Their main associated quantitative objectives are hitting probabilities, discounted sum, and mean payoff. Although there are many techniques for computing these objectives in general MCs/MDPs, they have not been thoroughly studied in terms of parameterized algorithms, particularly when treewidth is used as the parameter. This is in sharp contrast to qualitative objectives for MCs, MDPs and graph games, for which treewidth-based algorithms yield significant complexity improvements. In this work, we show that treewidth can also be used to obtain faster algorithms for the... 

This paper presents an approach that integrates clinical methods with Neuro-Fuzzy system in order to diagnose Neonatal Jaundice in newborns. First, a fuzzy logic system designed with medical rules to model the uncertainty that exists in medical diagnosis. Then a fuzzy neural network with an evolutionary learning helps the system to learn the new data gained from the patient and to help the fuzzy system to update itself in an online manner. By combining the aforementioned systems, the proposed approach can help physicians to diagnose jaundice with low risk cost associated with this disease. © 2006 IEEE  

One of the major challenges in the manufacturing parts, especially metals, is turning with good/excellent surface quality, which has a significant effect on the fatigue strength of the industrial components. Selecting incorrect or unsuitable values of machining parameters leads to vibration instability in the cutting tool and as a result, excessive roughness is created on the product’s surface. Therefore, one of the ways to reduce the roughness factor and increase the product fatigue life is to control the relative slip and vibration between the cutting tool and the workpiece. To achieve this goal, the authors attempted to investigate the simultaneous effects of tool overhang and cutting... 

The fabrication of TixNi1-x shape memory films using simultaneous magnetron sputtering from two separate, elemental targets was investigated. The films were deposited at room temperature and then annealed at 500 °C to achieve the shape memory effect. The influence of sputtering parameters such as power ratio to the targets (to control the composition) and Ar gas pressure (to control the film structure) were studied. It was found that the Ar gas pressure had a critical influence on the shape memory effect of the films. Characterization of the films was carried out by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy in a scanning electron microscope (to measure the film composition and uniformity), in... 

Multi-site photoplethysmography is an optoelectronic technique that measures changes in blood volume associated with cardiac contraction. Photoplethysmogram (PPG) recording enables researchers to study the vascular and hemodynamic properties of human subjects. Currently, there is no commercial system available in the market to perform multi-channel PPG recording. The measurements can be obtained from fingertips, ear lobes and toes due to their low absorption and high degree of vasculature. The main objective of this project is to develop a suitable data compression algorithm for two-channel simultaneous high resolution wireless PPG recording system. MATLAB software was used during the... 

Fully supramolecular dendrosomes (FSD) as bi-phase drug delivery systems are reported in this work. For preparation of FSD, amphiphilic linear-dendritic supramolecular systems (ALDSS) have been synthesized by host-guest interactions between hyperbranched polyglycerol having β-cyclodextrin core and bi-chain polycaprolactone (BPCL) with a fluorescine focal point. Self-assembly of ALDSS in aqueous solutions led to FSD. They were able to encapsulate paclitaxel with a high loading capacity. The dendrosome-based drug delivery systems were highly sensitive to pH and temperature. They were stable at 20-37. °C and pH7-8, but dissociated and released drug at temperatures lower than 20. °C or higher... 

We report the results of our numerical investigation on the temperature dependence of the characteristics of the cylindrical gate-all-around Si nanowire field effect transistor (Si-NW-FET). Assuming the effect of temperature on the energy band structure of Si just like the effect of strain, we simulate the transistor characteristics at various temperatures (50 K ≤ T ≤ 300 K). In this investigation, we demonstrate the temperature dependence of the transistor sub-threshold swing and the threshold voltage are both linear functions of the temperature, represented by 61.5 × (T/300) + 63.4 (mV/decade) and 220140 × (T/300-1) (mV). By calculating the IDS - T characteristics for VDS = 0.4 V and... 

Hot corrosion is a serious problem in gas turbines due to poor quality fuels which contain Na, V, S and Cl. To resolve the problem, Cr-aluminide was coated on IN-738LC superalloy with a two steps pack cementation process. Oxidation behavior and near-surface microstructure of the coating showed consecutive increase in destruction by exposition to Na2SO4, 75Na2SO4 + 25 V2O5 and 70Na2SO4 + 25 V2O5 + 5NaCl (wt.%). Kinetic studies indicated parabolic corrosion rate in salt-less samples due to diffusion. Similar expression for salt-covered samples was assessed for oxide dissolution. Plate-like, broken-plate-like and cauliflower-like morphologies attributed to the corrosion products were observed... 

This work describes coating of NiCoCrAlY on IN-738LC superalloy by high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) process. Properties of the coatings are significantly influenced by oxygen/fuel ratio and other spraying parameters. The effect of oxygen/fuel ratio on the oxidation behavior, bond strength, hardness, roughness and microstructure including porosity, inclusion formation and unmelted particles are discussed here. The porosity and inclusion in C1 coating are maximal. C2 coating with oxygen/fuel ratio of 2 has the highest bond strength and the lowest unmelted particles. C3 coating with the lowest total porosity and inclusion has the minimal roughness and the highest oxidation resistance and... 

Cupric oxide (CuO) nanostructures are grown on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) coated glass substrate using aqueous solution approach. The concentration of precursor's solution has significant impact on morphology of CuO nanostructure. By varying concentration of precursor, the growth of two different morphologies (oriented nanosheets and nanoleaves) is achieved. X-ray diffraction pattern and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy reveals formation of pure CuO crystalline phase. Mott-Schottky characteristic confirms the p-type semiconducting nature. Ultrathin structures of nanoleaves lead to higher light trapping and light absorption in visible-NIR region. The nanoleaves film has lower bandgap in... 

Owing to the expensive and time-consuming nature of durability experiments, finite element based durability analysis is quite prevalent in the automotive industry. Numerical fatigue life analyses are typically divided into two different categories, the quasi-static methods which are faster and the dynamic methods which are more accurate. The aim of this paper is to compare the inertia relief and modal dynamic approaches in terms of formulation, accuracy and computation time. The chosen case study is the fatigue life of the vehicle body which is considered the main load-bearing component in a vehicle. By utilizing multi-body dynamics model and driving the vehicle on different standardized... 

Abstract: This work describes coating of NiCoCrAlY on IN-738LC superalloy by high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) process. Properties of the coatings are significantly influenced by oxygen/fuel ratio and other spraying parameters. The effect of oxygen/fuel ratio on the oxidation behavior, bond strength, hardness, roughness and microstructure including porosity, inclusion formation and unmelted particles are discussed here. The porosity and inclusion in C1 coating are maximal. C2 coating with oxygen/fuel ratio of 2 has the highest bond strength and the lowest unmelted particles. C3 coating with the lowest total porosity and inclusion has the minimal roughness and the highest oxidation resistance... 

The food industry is dealing with the challenge of preserving fruits and vegetables and extending their shelf life, so the methods of food preservation have been investigated. Pathogens causing intestinal infections have been identified as a major cause of human disease; therefore, efforts should be made to reduce these pathogens in fruits and vegetables. Essential oils extracted from herbs and edible plants have natural antimicrobial additives. Due to their low water solubility, high volatility, and strong organoleptic qualities, essential oils are not commonly used to reduce microbial growth in fruits and vegetables. To overcome these challenges, encapsulation of essential oils in... 

Optical tweezers provide an accurate measurement technique for evaluating mechanical properties of the living cells and many experimental studies have been done to understand the behavior of cells due to external forces. Numerical studies such as finite element methods have been used in order to simulate mechanical behavior of the Red Blood Cells (RBCs). Recent studies have shown that the particle methods are useful tools to simulate the mechanical behavior of living cells. Since in microscopic scales, using discrete models are preferred than continuum methods, a particle-based method is used to simulate the deformation of RBC which is stretched by optical tweezers. The cytoplasm of RBC is... 

The geometry structures of hexa-coordinated [NiLX]X complexes (X = Cl -, Br-, I-) {L = 8,9,18,19-tetrahydro-7H,17H- dibenzo[f,o] [1,5,9,13]dioxadiaza cyclohexadecine-8,18-diol} are optimized by density functional theory (DFT) using B3LYP/LANL2DZ. The calculated geometric parameters are in good agreement with the corresponding experimental values. Calculation results about these complexes show that dipole moment decreases, and the energy levels of HOMOs descend from iodo-complex to chloro-complex. The energy levels of HOMOs descend gently from iodo-complex to chloro-complex, while the energy levels of LUMOs in the present complexes are almost similar; therefore the energy gapes between HOMOs... 

The granular activated carbon (GAC) was used as an adsorbent for its ability to remove haloacetic acids (HAAs) from drinking water by batch and column experiments. Various thermodynamic parameters, such as ΔG°, ΔH° and ΔS° have been calculated. The thermodynamics of HAAs onto GAC system indicates spontaneous and exothermic nature of the process. The ability of GAC to adsorb HAAs in a fixed bed column was investigated as well. The effect of operating parameters such as flow rate and inlet HAAs concentration on the sorption characteristics of GAC was investigated. The total adsorbed quantities, equilibrium uptakes and total removal percents of HAAs related to the effluent volumes were... 

The feasibility of a novel system to reliably estimate the normalized central blood pressure (CBPN) from the radial photoplethysmogram (PPG) is investigated. Right-wrist radial blood pressure and left-wrist PPG were simultaneously recorded in five different days. An industry-standard applanation tonometer was employed for recording radial blood pressure. The CBP waveform was amplitude-normalized to determine CBPN. A total of fifteen second-order autoregressive models with exogenous input were investigated using system identification techniques. Among these 15 models, the model producing the lowest coefficient of variation (CV) of the fitness during the five days was... 

Energy-Aware routing is a promising technique for reducing energy consumption in future networks. Under this scheme, traffic loads are aggregated over a subset of the network links, allowing other links to be turned off to save energy. Since the capacity of links is the main limiting constraint in this problem, to further improve energy saving, the idea of using redundancy elimination (RE) in energy-Aware routing has been proposed. As performing RE in routers consumes some energy, it should be specified, which routers should perform RE and which links should be deactivated so that the total energy consumption of the network is minimized. As a result, the problem of energy-Aware routing with... 

Porosity and permeability alteration due to the thermo-poro-elastic stress field disturbance from the cold fluid injection is a deciding factor for longer, more economic, and safer heat extraction from an enhanced geothermal system (EGS). In the Soultz-sous-Forêts geothermal system, faulted zones are the main flow paths, and the resulting porosity–permeability development over time due to stress reorientation is more sensitive in comparison with the regions without faulted zones. Available operational and field data are combined through a validated numerical simulation model to examine the mechanical impact on the pressure and temperature evolution. Results shows that near the injection... 

The main aim of the present paper is to assess the fatigue lifetime of ductile cast iron knuckles as one of the critical components of an automotive steering system. To this end, a real driving path, including various maneuvers, such as acceleration, braking, cornering, and moving on various types of road roughness, was considered. Different load histories, which are applied on various joints of the component (i.e., lower control arm, steering linkage, and Macpherson strut), were extracted through Multi-Body Dynamics (MBD) analysis of a full vehicle model. The achievements of previous studies have proved that the steering knuckle fails from the steering linkage and due to the rotational...