Sharif Digital Repository

Overexpression of proteins/antigens and other gene-related sequences in the bodies could lead to significant mutations and refractory diseases. Detection and identification of assorted trace concentrations of such proteins/antigens and/or gene-related sequences remain challenging, affecting different pathogens and making viruses stronger. Correspondingly, coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) mutations/alterations and spread could lead to overexpression of ssDNA and the related antigens in the population and brisk activity in gene-editing technologies in the treatment/detection may lead to the presence of pCRISPR in the blood. Therefore, the detection and evaluation of their trace concentrations are of... 

An autonomous hedge trimmer robot was developed to reduce the harmful effects of traditional hedge trimming method (gasoline-powered hedge trimmer) on operators' bodies and increase the speed and quality of the operation. The robot had five degrees of freedom (PRRRR) structure and was geometrically optimized to simplify the control strategy, enabling it to trim simple, stepped, and circular forms. The control system, consisting of a host computer, servo motors and servo drivers, and controller, guided the robot platform, manipulator, and end-effector as it approached and trimmed the hedge. By using a recognition algorithm and vision-based navigation system, the robot was able to detect the... 

Due to the interference problems of complex on-site installations attached to shield tunnel lining surface, deep learning models, developed for leakage datasets of shield tunnels, are not prepared to meet engineering requirements. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to optimize the original model based on the characteristics of leakage datasets. For this purpose, the present study adopted Mask R-CNN as the baseline and improved its performance from two aspects, including the properties of shield tunnel leakage datasets and detection errors of the original model in the testing set. With reference to the properties of leakage datasets, the model compression technique was implemented to... 

Nondestructive estimation of physicochemical properties, post-harvest physiology, and level of ripeness of fruits is essential to their automated harvesting, sorting, and handling. Recent research efforts have identified machine vision systems as a promising noninvasive nondestructive tool for exploring the relationship between physicochemical and appearance characteristics of fruits at various ripening levels. In this regard, the purpose of the current study is to provide an intelligent algorithm for estimating two physical properties including firmness, and soluble solid content (SSC), three chemical properties viz. starch, acidity, and titratable acidity (TA), as well as detection of the... 

Direct-drive permanent magnet synchronous generators enjoy numerous advantages including improved reliability, low maintenance, long life, and developed performance characteristics. In recent years, many researchers have worked on these generators to enhance their performance, especially for the wind turbine application. The focus of this paper is on the development of a step-by-step method for the design of a permanent magnet synchronous generator. Then, the winding function method is used to model the generator and calculate its output characteristics analytically. The analytical results of the designed generator are validated using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and it is demonstrated that... 

In this study, spinel CuCo2O4 (CCO) with a hierarchical hollow sphere morphology was encapsulated in V2O5-decorated ultra-wrinkled graphitic carbon-nitride (VO-UCN) for the first time via a facile glycerol-assisted solvothermal method in the interest of developing a novel high-efficiency double Z-type nano-photocatalyst (denoted as VO-UCN@CCO). The remarkable physicochemical features of the as-prepared nano-photocatalysts were verified using diverse characterization techniques including TGA, XRD, FT-IR, FE-SEM, TEM, BET, UV–vis DRS, PL, EIS, and transient photocurrent techniques. Herein, VO-UCN@CCO nanocomposite was employed for the photodisintegration of levofloxacin (LVOF) antibiotic under... 

Green biomaterials play a crucial role in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases as well as health-related problem-solving. Typically, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and mechanical strength are requirements centered on biomaterial engineering. However, in-hospital therapeutics require an elaborated synthesis of hybrid and complex nanomaterials capable of mimicking cellular behavior. Accumulation of hazardous cations like K+ in the inner and middle ear may permanently damage the ear system. We synthesized nanoplatforms based on Allium noeanum to take the first steps in developing biological porous nanomembranes for hazardous cation detection in biological media. The... 

Flat plate solar collectors lose a massive part of heat accumulated near the contact region because of the poor thermal characteristics of the working fluid. A new cost-effective design is numerically studied to cover up such deficiency by equipping the flat plate collector with revolutionary tubes and magnetic field inducer to affect Fe3O4/water working nanofluid in the collector tubes. Results substantiate that each of the applied rotary tubes and magnetic field inducer improves the convection mechanism in the tubes by circulating the flow inside the tubes and saves more of available solar energy. Results reveal that 27.8% and 10.44% of lost energy are restored in the solar collector... 

For traditional calculations of relative phase permeability (Kr) from coreflood Steady-State Test (SST), the capillary pressure (Pc) is required. Usually, Pc is determined from a separate test, using a centrifuge or porous-plate methods. However, during SSTs, water cut and pressure drop are measured during the transition period between two sequential fractional-flow steps. We developed a novel method for simultaneous determination of Kr and Pc from SST by using both steady-state and transient data. In the proposed method, the transition data on the pressure drop across the core are used instead of the traditionally utilised Pc-curve. The main idea is that the stabilisation period during each... 

Bathymetric mapping for an accurate estimation of stored water volume in drying lakes is a key information for an effective monitoring of their recession or restoration status. Extraction of bathymetry in shallow saline lakes using remote sensing techniques has always been challenging due to the complex influences imposed by the physical properties of substrate and the spatial variability of salinity. In this study, we developed a machine learning-based model to quantify the implicit, non-linear relationship between water depth and surface reflectance by leveraging extensive in-situ data and high-resolution satellite imagery. We trained and tested the learning model in the hyper-saline Lake... 

In this research, the efficiency of the integrated fixed-film activated sludge-oxic settling anoxic (IFAS-OSA) system in biological nutrient removal was studied. The oxic-settling anoxic (OSA) process is known as a cost effective way to reduce the nutrients (nitrogen and Phosphorus). According to the results, the percentages of total nitrogen removal efficiency in the IFAS, IFAS-OSA2h and IFAS-OSA4h systems were 78.56 ± 2.46, 83.60 ± 0.92 and 85.03 ± 1.69, respectively, while the percentages of phosphorus removal efficiency in these systems were 32.69 ± 8.25, 36.35 ± 6.73 and 39.87 ± 3.61, respectively. The PCR-RFLP method showed that C. albicans had the greatest prevalence (n = 36, 90%).... 

Optimal hyperplastic coeficients of the micromechanical constituents of the human brain stem were investigated. An evolutionary optimization algorithm was combined with a Finite Element (FE) model of a Representative Volume Element (RVE) to nd the optimal material properties of axon and Extra Cellular Matrix (ECM). The tension and compression test results of a previously published experiment were used for optimizing the material coeficients, and the shear experiment was used for the validation of the resulting constitutive model. The optimization algorithm was used to search for optimal shear moduli and ber sti ness of axon and ECM by tting the average stress in the axonal direction with the... 

The solar collectors absorb solar irradiation and then produce thermal energy; however, they cannot generate electrical power. Electricity and thermal energy can be produced by the photovoltaic thermal module, simultaneously, while the outlet temperature of the photovoltaic thermal module is not usually high enough to provide thermal requirements of a building such as hot water or space heating. This work proposes a novel compound system created by the connection of a solar collector in series with a photovoltaic thermal module to resolve the issue of low outlet temperature in the photovoltaic thermal module and lack of electrical power in solar collectors. To examine the feasibility of this... 

CaO derived from calcined eggshell was doped with Na–K by wet impregnation method and the effect of different Na/K molar ratios was investigated on biodiesel production from canola oil. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRD), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX), and Thermogravimetric (TGA) analyses. FAME yields were determined by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). The Na–K/CaO catalyst with Na/K molar ratio of 1 showed the highest FAME yield of 97.6% at optimum reaction conditions. Structural investigation of materials revealed that FAME yield was proportional to the number of basic sites on... 

Low accuracy, requirement of expensive instruments, derivatization and multi-step sample preparation, inconsistencies during the fabrication process, time-consuming procedures and utilization of eco-unfriendly chemicals are some limitations of various developed methods for detection of 4-methylimidazol (4-MeI). Herein, a rapid and miniaturized fluorescent probe based on the ultrasound‒assisted formation of carbon dots (CDs) in a metallic deep eutectic solvent (MDES) was developed and conveniently implemented to detect 4-MeI in commercial dark soft drinks. In-situ synthesis of CDs-chelated metals in the presence of the target analyte facilitates a kinetically fluorescence emission with no... 

The presence of pharmaceutical micropollutants in water and wastewater is considered a serious environmental issue. To eliminate these pollutants, biodegradation of pharmaceuticals using enzymes such as laccase, is proposed as a green method. In this study, immobilized laccase was used for the removal of two model pharmaceutical compounds, carbamazepine and diclofenac. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane modified with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were synthesized as a tailor-made support for enzyme immobilization. Covalently immobilized laccase from Trametes hirsuta exhibited remarkable activity and activity recovery of 4.47 U/cm2 and 38.31%, respectively. The results also... 

This paper introduces a new methodology for designing and optimizing the performance of hydraulic Cross-Flow turbines for a wide range of operating conditions. The methodology is based on a one-step approach for the system-level design phase and a three-step, successive numerical analysis approach for the detail design phase. Compared to current design methodologies, not only does this approach break down the process into well-defined steps and simplify it, but it also has the advantage that once numerical simulations are conducted for a single turbine, most of the results can be used for an entire class of Cross-Flow turbines. In this paper, after a discussion of the research background, we... 

One of the key parts of perovskite solar cells which has great influence on their performance and stability is hole transporting layer. Spiro-OMeTAD is extensively used as organic hole transporting material in perovskite solar cells. However, Spiro-OMeTAD is expensive and has low chemical stability. In this study, the solution processed Sb2S3 and Cu3SbS4 nanocrystals have been synthesized and then the n-i-p mesoscopic perovskite solar cells have been fabricated using Spiro-OMeTAD, Sb2S3 and Cu3SbS4 nanocrystals as hole transporting layer at ambient air condition. It is shown that the conduction and valence band levels of the synthesized Sb2S3 and Cu3SbS4 nanocrystals are in the proper... 

The classical methods utilized for modeling nano-scale systems are not practical because of the enlarged surface e ects that appear at small dimensions. Contrarily, implementing more accurate methods is followed by prolonged computations as these methods are highly dependent on quantum and atomistic models, and they can be employed for very small sizes in brief time periods. In order to speed up the Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations of the silicon structures, Coarse-Graining (CG) models are put forward in this research. The procedure involves establishing a map between the main structure's atoms and the beads comprising the CG model and modifying the parameters of the system so that the... 

The purpose of this study is to detect geochemical anomalies utilizing a Wavelet-Number (W-N) fractal model based on combination of a two-dimensional Discrete Wavelet Transformation (DWT) signal analysis and a Concentration-Area (C-A) fractal modeling. The DWT was carried by Sym8 as a selected wavelet pattern (by energy matching method) for Zn and Pb based on rock samples collected from the Ipack area, Central Iran. In addition, the DWT was decomposed by continuous wavelet coefficients at five levels and a final image was synthesized. Furthermore, the DWT data were classified using a fractal-wavelet model for delineation of both Zn and Pb anomalies from background levels in this area....