Sharif Digital Repository

Water can be pumped in nanochannels by limiting it between the surfaces with different hydrophobicities and exerting a spinning electric field. The asymmetrical hydrophobicity combined with the spinning electric field and the fact that the water molecules have a dipole moment create a situation in which the angular momentum of water molecules is transformed into a linear momentum and the water is pumped into the nanochannel. The hydrophobicity of the surfaces can be manipulated by using nanostructures to reduce friction. In this study, two types of nanostructures have been used which are hierarchical nanostructures and polymer nanostructures made of Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide). The walls of... 

Purpose: Core Bone Plug Fixation (CBPF) technique is an implant-less methodology for ACL reconstruction. This study investigates the effect of bone density on CBPF stability to identify the bone quality that is likely to benefit from this technique. Methods: Artificial blocks with 160 (Group 1), 240 (Group 2), and 320 (Group 3) kg/m3 densities were used to simulate human bone with diverse qualities. These groups are representative of the elderly, middle age and young people, respectively. A tunnel was made in each test sample using a cannulated drill bit which enabled harvesting the core bone plug intact. Fresh animal tendon grafts were prepared and passed through the tunnel, so the core... 

Nowadays, the significance of sustainability has urged composite manufacturers to replace traditional synthetic fibers with eco-friendly natural alternatives due to their environmental and economic benefits. This work aims to fabricate hybrid polypropylene (PP) composites with short flax fibers, octene-ethylene copolymer (POE) rubber particles, and maleic anhydride-grafted polypropylene (MAPP) compatibilizer. The main goal is to gain an insight into the combined effect of toughening mechanisms induced by the short fibers and rubber particles at the crack tip and wake of composites, which is a crucial step in reaching a balance between toughness and rigidity. In this regard, a novel... 

The treatment of water contaminated by bacteria is becoming a necessity. The nanomaterials possessing both intrinsic antibacterial properties and photocatalytic activity are excellent candidates for water disinfection. The powdered form of nanomaterials can be aggregated while embedding the nanomaterials into the NFs can overcome the limitation and enhance the photocatalytic activity and transition from UV-light to visiblelight. Here, graphene oxide (GO) was synthesized, grafted to chitosan, and decorated with silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) to produce Ag-decorated reduced GO-graft-Chitosan (AGC) NPs. The blends of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and AGC NPs were prepared in various concentrations of... 

Incorporating titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles into the polymeric matrix offers an opportunity to obtain nanocomposites with improved functionality. In this study, the commercial TiO2 nanoparticles (TNP) were surface treated by different concentrations of aminopropyl triethoxy silane (APTS) as a coupling agent and triethylamine (Et3N) as a surface grafting catalyst by an aqueous process to prepare a nanocomposite with superior properties. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were performed to confirm the successful surface modification of TNP. The prepared modified TiO2 nanoparticles (mTNP) with different weight fractions were used as... 

The electrokinetic energy conversion, electroviscous effect, and induced internal and external magnetic fields in a smart polyelectrolyte grafted "soft"nanopore with pH responsiveness are studied here using an efficient molecular theory approach. The analysis is based on writing the total free energy of the system, including the conformational entropy of the flexible, self-avoiding polymer chains and the translational entropy of the mobile species, the electrostatic interactions, and the free energy due to chemical equilibrium reactions. Then, the free energy is minimized, while satisfying the necessary constraints to find the equilibrium state of the system. The predictions of the model are... 

A flexible, porous and biocompatible titanium dioxide nanotubes (TNT) - polyurethane (PU) film has been produced as a new scaffold for artificial vascular grafts. Synergistic improvements in the properties of vertical TNT and PU was reached, including enhancements in their biocompatibility, mechanical strength, flexibility and porosity. Open-ended (OE) TNT-PU and close-ended (CE) TNT-PU films were synthesized and their mechanical and biological properties were compared with their pure PU counterparts. TNT were attached to PU with a new strategy. The resulting flexible structure was hydrophilic and super hydrophilic in OE-TNT-PU and CE-TNT-PU scaffolds, respectively. The gas leakage during... 

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... 

Although the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction using interference screw is a well-accepted surgical procedure, patients still suffer graft failure in the initial rehabilitation phase. Graft fixation stability of a newly designed anatomical hybrid thread tapered interference screw (AHTTIS) was compared with a conventional standard one (CSIS) by conducting in-vitro mechanical tests. According to the CSIS manufacturer's instruction, eight tapered bone tunnels, matching AHTTIS geometry, and eight straight cylindrical tunnels were drilled in artificial bone blocks. Bovine tendon grafts were fixed using AHTTIS and CSIS in their corresponding bone tunnels. Each graft was subjected to... 

The goal of this study is to investigate the effects of tendon and cannulated drill bit diameter on the strength of the bone and site hold tendon inside (BASHTI) fixation technique for an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. Bovine digital tendons and Sawbones blocks were used to mimic the ACL reconstruction. Mechanical strength of the specimens was measured using a cyclic loading continued by a single cycle pullout load until failure to simulate the real postsurgical loading conditions. Finally, failure modes of specimens and ultimate failure load were recorded. The maximum possible tendon surface strain (i.e., tendon compression [TC]) for tendon diameters of 6, 7, 8, and 9 mm... 

Fractional flow reserve (FFR)-based decision improves the outcomes of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for some patients, while its effectiveness in improving the results of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) is unclear, in particular for moderate stenosis. It may be due to the fact that FFR cannot take into account the impacts of competitive flow (CF), intimal hyperplasia (IH), as well as compliance mismatch (CMM). As a result, two questions arise 1) whether FFR is a sufficient factor to decide to perform the CABG for patients with moderate to severe stenosis or not and 2) whether post-operative FFR shows the effectiveness of a graft. To shed light on this matter, two... 

In this work, the addition of a novel polyaniline (PANI)/silica (SiO2) nanostructure (PSn) in chitosan/polyvinyl alcohol nanofibers (CP) was evaluated to enhance the dye removal capacity of CP. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) results confirmed the chemical grafting of SiO2 on PANI nanoparticles. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) results showed a specific surface area of 61 m2 g−1 for the PSn filled CP nanofiber (CP-PSn). FE-SEM and EDS-elemental mapping results showed the uniform dispersibility of PSn in CP nanofibers. After the addition of PSn into CP, the adsorption capacity of... 

Graphene oxide (GO) was chemically modified withpara-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) to immobilize copper(ii) ions on its surface and used as a nanocatalyst for the oxidative C(sp2)-H bond amination reaction. A practical method to prepare Cu2+supported onpara-aminobenzoic acid grafted on GO was reported. The prepared Cu2+@GO/PABA was characterized by FT-IR, XRD, SEM, AFM, TEM, UV-Vis, and ICP techniques. The results showed that the morphology, distribution, and loading of copper ions could be well-adjusted by grafting of PABA on GO. Moreover, just 2 mol% of Cu2+@GO-PABA could catalyze the C-H activation reaction of benzoxazole and benzothiazole with secondary amines in >94% yields. Also, the... 

Background: Bone and Site Hold Tendon Inside (BASHTI) technique is an organic implant-less technique for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction with some clinical advantages, such as speeding up the healing process, over implantable techniques. The study aims to compare the mechanical properties of BASHTI technique with the conventional interference screw technique. Methods: To investigate the mechanical properties, 20 in-vitro experimental tests were conducted. Synthetic dummy bone, along with fresh digital bovine tendons, as a graft, were used for experiments. Three loading steps were applied to all specimens, including a preconditioning, a main cyclic, and a pull-out loading.... 

Background: Superior biomechanical performance of tapered interference screws, compared with non-tapered screws, with reference to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction process, has been reported in the literature. However, the effect of tapered interference screw’s body slope on the initial stability of ACL is poorly understood. Thus, the main goal of this study was to investigate the effect of the interference screw’s body slope on the initial stability of the reconstructed ACL. Methods: Based on the best screw-bone tunnel diameter ratios in non-tapered screws, two different tapered interference screws were designed and fabricated. The diameters of both screws were equal to... 

The synthesis of nanocomposites via in situ grafting polymerization due to its ability to produce polymeric materials with promising microscopic and macroscopic characteristics is becoming very attractive. In this paper, different poly(L-Lactide)-block-poly(ε-caprolactone) (PLLA-b-PCL) copolymers were in situ synthesized in the presence of modified titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (mTNP) as the initiator and stannous octoate as the catalyst. The surface of TiO2 was modified by grafting aminopropyl trimethoxy silane to improve initiator efficiency. Copolymers with 90/10, 70/30, and 50/50 mass ratio of L-lactide/ ε-caprolactone and 5 wt% of mTNP (proportional to ε-caprolactone) were... 

In United States (U.S.), government-funded organizations, such as NLDAC, reimburse travel and subsistence expenses incurred during living-organ donation process. However, in Iran, there is a non-governmental organization called Iranian Kidney Foundation (IKF) that funds the direct and indirect costs of donors through charitable donations and contributions from participants in the exchange program. In this article, for countries outside the U.S. that currently use an equality approach, we propose a potential new compensation-apportionment approach (equitable approach) for kidney-exchange chains and compare it with the currently available system (equality approach) in terms of the... 

With the high rate of mortality associated with breast cancer among women, breast cancer treatment has attracted great deal of attention globally. To reduce the exposure of body organs to high cytotoxicity of the common chemotherapeutic drugs, local co-delivery of selected chemotherapeutics has emerged as a solution. In this work, an electrospun composite including a co-drug-loaded graphene oxide-based nanocarrier is fabricated for local anticancer applications. To increase dispersion and cellular uptake of graphene oxide (GO), first, the hydroxyl groups at the edges of GO are grafted by poly (epichlorohydrin) (PCH) to form GO-PCH. Then, the hydroxyl end groups of PCH are grafted (g) with... 

The purpose of this research is to explain the surface modification of fabricated polyamide reverse osmosis (RO) membranes using UV-initiated graft polymerization at different irradiation times (15, 30, 60, and 90 s) and various acrylamide concentrations (10, 20, and 30 g L−1). Also, coating of membranes surface with various concentrations of TiO2 nanoparticles (10, 20, 30, and 50 ppm) followed by the same UV irradiation times was investigated. After that, the membranes modification was done by grafting of acrylamide blended with TiO2 nanoparticles via UV irradiation. The characterization of membranes surface properties and their performance were systematically carried out. The results... 

The magnetic composite hydrogel was fabricated by the graft copolymerization of itaconic acid (IA) onto starch and Alginic acid in the presence graphene sheets (Gr) and Fe3O4 nanoparticles (Fe3O4@Gr-IA/St-Alg) for Guaifenesin (GFN) delivery and wound healing. The Fe3O4@Gr-IA/St-Alg biomaterial is a hydrogel network endowed the material with magnetic property. In addition, GFN not only achieved effectively bound to the magnetic hydrogel, but also released in a controlled manner. The using external magnetic field has significantly positive influence on the drug release rate. To close, these hydrogel drug carriers offer a favorable platform for magnetically targeted drug delivery as well as a...