Sharif Digital Repository

The chemical synthesis and in vitro drug delivery response of folate-modified, polyethylene glycol-functionalized gold nanoparticles were studied. Lysine-capped gold nanoparticles were first prepared. Subsequently, the widely used anticancer agent doxorubicin (DOX) was successfully attached to the surface of folate-modified, polyethylene glycol-functionalized gold nanoparticles. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to confirm the functionalization and conjugation steps in the chemical synthesis. The DOX-loading efficiency determined by UV-vis spectrometer was 80%. Drug release experiments displayed a controlled-release behavior... 

A magnetic nanoparticle@starch-g-poly(vinyl sulfate) nanocomposite (MNP@St-g-PVS) as a new magnetic nano-adsorbent has been prepared based on graft copolymerization of vinyl acetate onto starch in the presence of magnetic nanoparticles, where the acetate groups were converted to hydroxyl groups followed by the sulfation of the hydroxyl groups using chlorosulfonic acid. Characterization of this magnetic nanocomposite was carried out by FTIR, TGA, XRD, VSM, SEM, TEM and elemental analysis. The resulting nanocomposite was used as an adsorbent for the removal of typical cationic dyes, methylene blue (MB) and malachite green (MG), from aqueous solutions. All experimental parameters that can... 

Multiphase flow is fundamental to different fields of engineering and science including petroleum engineering. In oil and gas, flow of multiple phases inside wells is a common phenomenon. In such conditions, petroleum engineers deal with different design and operational difficulties due to complexities involved in flow of multiple phases inside a well. Unlike flow of gas and liquid inside a well, the liquid-liquid flow inside a horizontal well has received rather less attention. This study is aimed at experimentally investigating multiphase flow in a horizontal well by using a 12 m length and 30 mm diameter well made of Plexiglas. Despite the importance of defining pattern transition... 

Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between microRNAs and viral and immunological markers in HIV-1 infection. Materials & methods: The expression level of miRNAs was evaluated in 60 HIV-1 patients and 20 healthy controls using real-time PCR assays. Results: The results showed that among all miRNAs, miR-29 and miR-150 were significantly downregulated in HIV-1 patients compared with healthy controls, while miR-155 and miR-223 were significantly upregulated compared with healthy controls (p < 0.001 for all comparisons). Conclusion: The mentioned miRNAs seem to influence the clinical progression of HIV-1 infection in naive patients. Moreover, determining the profiles of... 

Objective: This systematic review and meta-analysis was performed to determine the prevalence rate of influenza virus from different parts of Middle East region, and present an overall relative frequency (RF) for this region. Methods: The authors performed a systematic literature review from several reliable databases such as PubMed, ISI Web of Science and Scopus during 2000–2016. Furthermore, the keywords of this research were ‘Influenza’, ‘Subtype’, ‘Seroprevalence’, ‘Incidence’, ‘Seroepidemiology’, ‘H1N1’, ‘H3N2’, ‘H5N1’, ‘H9N2’, ‘Middle-East’ and ‘Meta-analysis’. The reported data were selected according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results: The authors selected 71 studies out of... 

Due to the noise that is present in remote sensing data, a robust method to retrieve information is needed. In this study, the active learning method (ALM) is applied to spectral remote sensing reflectance data to retrieve in-water pigment. The heart of the ALM is a fuzzy interpolation method that is called the ink drop spread (IDS). Three datasets (SeaBAM, synthetic and NOMAD) are used for the evaluation of the selected ALM approach. Comparison of the ALM with the ocean colour 4 (OC4) algorithm and the artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm demonstrated the robustness of the ALM approach in retrieval of in-water constituents from remote sensing reflectance data. In addition, the ALM... 

Remotely sensed data inherently contain noise. The development of inverse modelling methods with a low sensitivity to noise is in demand for the estimation of geophysical variables from remotely sensed data. The Active Learning Method (ALM) is well known to have a low sensitivity to noise. For the first time, ALM was utilized for the inversion of radiative transfer calculations with the aim of estimating chlorophyll a (Chl a), coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM), and suspended particulate matter (SPM) in the Caspian Sea using MERIS (MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) data. ALM training is straightforward and fast. The ALM inversion models revealed the most relevant variables and... 

We purposed a new Network on Chip (NoC) architecture called Hierarchical Graph. The most interesting feature of this novel architecture is its simple implementation process. Furthermore, the flexible structure of this topology makes it suitable for use in application specified chips. To benchmark the suggested architecture with existing ones, basic models of physical implementation have been extracted and simulated using NS-2. The results compared with the common used architecture Mesh show that HG has better performance, especially in local traffics and high loads. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2005  

Advancements in nanotechnology have resulted in the introduction of several nonviral delivery vectors for the nontoxic, efficient delivery of encapsulated mRNA-based vaccines. Lipid- and polymer-based nanoparticles (NP) have proven to be the most potent delivery systems, providing increased delivery efficiency and protection of mRNA molecules from degradation. Here, the authors provide an overview of the recent studies carried out using lipid NPs and their functionalized forms, polymeric and lipid-polymer hybrid nanocarriers utilized mainly for the encapsulation of mRNAs for gene and immune therapeutic applications. A microfluidic system as a prevalent methodology for the preparation of NPs... 

The price elasticity of gasoline demand is a key parameter in evaluation of various policies. However, most of the literature uses aggregate data to identify this elasticity. Temporal and spatial aggregation make such elasticity estimates biased. We employ a unique dataset of all gasoline transactions in Iran during a 4-month period around an unexpected exogenous price change to identify that price elasticity. We also identify a significant withholding behavior by consumers in response to anticipated price changes. The consumers reduce or postpone their purchases when they expect a decrease in prices. Controlling for date fixed effects would eliminate homogeneous withholding responses....