Sharif Digital Repository

This paper points out a flaw in the derivation of the optimal price and warranty length policies proposed by Wu et al. (2006) (Wu, C.C., Lin, P.C., Chou, C.Y. Determination of price and warranty length for a normal lifetime distributed product. International Journal of Production Economics 102 (2006): 95–107). While we show one of the optimal strategies that they considered is incorrect, correct versions of the optimal strategies are presented  

Detection and classification of ventricular complexes from the ECG is of considerable importance in Holter and critical care patient monitoring, being essential for the timely diagnosis of dangerous heart conditions. Accurate detection of premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) is particularly important in relation to life-threatening arrhythmias. In this paper, we introduce a model-based dynamic algorithm for tracking the ECG characteristic waveforms using an extended Kalman filter. The algorithm can work on single or multiple leads. A "polargram"--a polar representation of the signal--is introduced, which is constructed using the Bayesian estimations of the state variables. The polargram... 

Different multivariate process capability indices are developed by researchers to evaluate process capability when vectors of quality characteristics are considered in a study. This paper presents two indices referred to as NCpM,and MCpM, in order to evaluate process capability in multivariate environment. The performance of the proposed indices is investigated numerically. Simulation results indicate that the proposed indices have descended estimation error and improved performance compared to the existing ones. These results can be important to researchers and practitioners who are interested in evaluating process capability in multivariate domain  

In this paper, we experimentally investigate the statistical distribution of intensity fluctuations for underwater wireless optical channels under different channel conditions, namely fresh and salty underwater channels with and without air bubbles. To do so, we first measure the received optical signal with a large number of samples. Based on the normalized acquired data the channel coherence time and the fluctuations probability density function (PDF) are obtained for different channel scenarios. Our experimental results show that salt attenuates the received signal while air bubbles mainly introduce severe intensity fluctuations. Moreover, we observe that log-normal distribution precisely... 

The main goal in many fields in the empirical sciences is to discover causal relationships among a set of variables from observational data. PC algorithm is one of the promising solutions to learn underlying causal structure by performing a number of conditional independence tests. In this paper, we propose a novel GPU-based parallel algorithm, called cuPC, to execute an order-independent version of PC. The proposed solution has two variants, cuPC-E and cuPC-S, which parallelize PC in two different ways for multivariate normal distribution. Experimental results show the scalability of the proposed algorithms with respect to the number of variables, the number of samples, and different graph... 

In this paper Time-Based Random Waypoint (TBRWP) model is analyzed in detail. Random waypoint model has been studied in mobility literature extensively. Traditional RWP model is based on the independency of the velocity and trajectory; TBRWP, instead, focuses on the independency of motion time and trajectory. Basic model is introduced and general method to evaluate the asymptotical probability density function (PDF) is presented. The model for the one-dimensional and two-dimensional cases with uniform destination distribution in unit square area is solved and exact closed form formulas is obtained. Moreover, normal distribution of nodes in one- and two- dimensional models is investigated and... 

Recent studies have shown the X-bar control chart with variable sampling interval detects shifts in the process mean faster than the traditional X-bar chart. These studies are usually based on the assumption that the process data are independently and normally distributed. However, many situations in practice violate these assumptions. In this study, a methodology is developed to economically design a variable sampling interval X-bar control chart that takes into consideration correlated non normal sample data. An example is provided to illustrate the solution procedure. A sensitivity analysis on the input parameters (i.e., the cost and the process parameters) is performed taking into... 

Traffic modeling, traffic decomposition, and traffic engineering are some of the applications of traffic characterization that are mainly based on statistical characteristics of the network traffic. Many empirical analyses on Internet traffic traces show that the flow inter-arrival time distribution generally follows the Weibull distribution. As the scale of the network becomes larger, the Weibull distribution degrades to the Poisson distribution and when the flow arrival rate is high, it asymptotically converges to the Normal distribution. The aggregated traffic on high bandwidth links is the result of statistical multiplexing of many traffic sources, and the flow arrival rate on these... 

In this research, minimizing the expected number of tardy jobs in a dynamic m machine flow-shop scheduling problem, i.e.,FM|r j|E[∑Uj] is investigated. It is assumed that the jobs with deterministic processing times and stochastic due dates arrive randomly to the flow-shop cell. The due date of each job is assumed to be normally distributed with known mean and variance. A dynamic method is proposed for this problem by which the m machine stochastic flow-shop problem is decomposed into m stochastic single-machine sub-problems. Then, each sub-problem is solved as an independent stochastic single-machine scheduling problem by a mathematical programming model. Comparison of the proposed method... 

Process capability indices are useful tools for evaluating the ability of a process to produce products that meet certain specifications. The assembly quality is dependent on the distribution of variations of assembly dimensions, which is in turn dependent on mating conditions in the mechanical assembly. Since it is often difficult to measure the assembly dimensions in the production stages, they are not considered as a direct inspection objective. Rather, the inspection and evaluation of quality is carried out by specifying whether the assembly requirements satisfy the specified limits. Therefore, we can basethe process capability indices on the assembly dimensions. In most real life cases,... 

In this paper, we describe a Gaussian wave-based state space to model the temporal dynamics of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. It is shown that this model may be effectively used for generating synthetic ECGs as well as separate characteristic waves (CWs) such as the atrial and ventricular complexes. The model uses separate state variables for each CW, i.e. P, QRS and T, and hence is capable of generating individual synthetic CWs as well as realistic ECG signals. The model is therefore useful for generating arrhythmias. Simulations of sinus bradycardia, sinus tachycardia, ventricular flutter, atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia are presented. In addition, discrete versions of... 

Water-in-oil emulsion usually forms during waterflooding in some heavy oil reservoirs. The composition and salinity of the injected water critically affect the w/o emulsion droplet size distribution, which control the emulsion stability and emulsion flow in porous media. The aim of the present work is to assess the effect of different sea water salinities on w/o emulsion stability through microscopic imaging. Therefore, w/o emulsions were prepared with different sea water samples, which were synthesized to resemble Persian Gulf, Mediterranean, Red Sea, and North Sea water samples. The results showed that log-normal distribution function predicts very well the experimental data to track the... 

Water-in-oil emulsion usually forms during waterflooding in some heavy oil reservoirs. The composition and salinity of the injected water critically affect the w/o emulsion droplet size distribution, which control the emulsion stability and emulsion flow in porous media. The aim of the present work is to assess the effect of different sea water salinities on w/o emulsion stability through microscopic imaging. Therefore, w/o emulsions were prepared with different sea water samples, which were synthesized to resemble Persian Gulf, Mediterranean, Red Sea, and North Sea water samples. The results showed that log-normal distribution function predicts very well the experimental data to track the... 

The growing demand for statistical process monitoring has led to the vast utilization of multivariate control charts. Complicated structure of the measured variables associated with highly correlated characteristics, has given rise to daily increasing urge for reliable substitutes of conventional methods. In this regard, projection methods have been developed to address the issue of high correlation among characteristics by transforming them to an uncorrelated set of variables. Principal component analysis (PCA)-based control charts are widely used to overcome the issue of correlation among measured variables by defining linear transformations of the existing variables to a new uncorrelated... 

Novel two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) antenna array geometries for smart antenna application are introduced. Minimum mean square error beamforming algorithm, using these arrays, in presence of signal, noise and interferences is implemented. Beamforming approach is used for every type of array assuming uniform and log-normal distributions for the interference amplitudes. Equal volume cylindrical or prism type arrays with circular, hexagonal, triangular, square and star cross-sections with equal number of elements are considered. Novel geometries consisting of rotated cross-sections are studied as well. In each case, the relative signal-to-interference ratios (SIRs) are... 

The growing demand for statistical process monitoring has led to the vast utilization of multivariate control charts. Complicated structure of the measured variables associated with highly correlated characteristics, has given rise to daily increasing urge for reliable substitutes of conventional methods. In this regard, projection methods have been developed to address the issue of high correlation among characteristics by transforming them to an uncorrelated set of variables. Principal component analysis (PCA)-based control charts are widely used to overcome the issue of correlation among measured variables by defining linear transformations of the existing variables to a new uncorrelated... 

Novel two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) antenna array geometries for smart antenna application are introduced. Minimum mean square error beamforming algorithm, using these arrays, in presence of signal, noise and interferences is implemented. Beamforming approach is used for every type of array assuming uniform and log-normal distributions for the interference amplitudes. Equal volume cylindrical or prism type arrays with circular, hexagonal, triangular, square and star cross-sections with equal number of elements are considered. Novel geometries consisting of rotated cross-sections are studied as well. In each case, the relative signal-to-interference ratios (SIRs) are... 

A new technique for the laminar-turbulent intermittency measurement based on the surface hot-film data is presented. The existing techniques require data acquired from the calibrated hot-films which leads to the real wall shear stress values. However, calibration of the hot-films is usually very complex. In the proposed method, a technique based on the probability distribution function (PDF) of the acquired data using the uncalibrated hot-film sensors is presented and evaluated. The PDF is prepared for a reduced form of the quasi-wall shear stress value instead of the real shear stress value one. This leads to a standard normal distribution curve for the PDF in the turbulent flow region and...