Sharif Digital Repository

This study investigated the effect of gilsonite and Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene (SBS) as asphalt binder modifiers on the physical and rheological properties of asphalt binders. For this, binder tests such as penetration test, softening point, rotational viscosity (RV), Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR), and Bending Beam Rheometer (BBR) were conducted on the neat and modified binders. The effect of gilsonite and SBS on the binder temperature susceptibility was also investigated by measuring Penetration Index (PI), Activation Energy (AE) and Viscosity-Temperature Susceptibility (VTS) of all the study binders. Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) test was directed toward investigation of... 

A novel method based on EEG nonlinear analysis and analysis of steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) has been processed. The EEG phase space is reconstructed, and some new geometrical features are extracted. Statistical analysis is carried out based on ANOVA, and most significant features are selected and then fed into a multi-class support vector machine (MSVM). Both offline and online phases are considered to fully address SSVEP detection. In the offline mode, the whole design evaluation, feature selection, and classifier training are performed. In the online scenario, the proposed method is evaluated and the detection rate is reported for both phases. Subject-dependent and... 

Electrification involves many activities that have detrimental impacts on environment. Over the last few years, many studies have been conducted to understand, estimate and mitigate the carbon footprint of electricity distribution but other environmental aspects of electrification remain almost neglected. In recent years, electricity distribution companies have adopted many waste management techniques to reduce the amount of waste generated in their key processes. However, the causes of waste and the necessary corrective actions to alleviate the waste generation in electricity distribution have not been studies in an integrated framework. In current study, which was conducted to fill this... 

This paper presents the creep behavior of various FRP (GFRP, CFRP, and hybrid) bars in order to investigate the effects of different parameters, including the applied stress levels, bar diameter, and the type of fiber and resin in the creep behavior of FRP bars. The creep strains versus time curves were experimentally obtained for 83 days. Moreover, a statistical study, including analysis of variance (ANOVA) and linear Bayesian regression was conducted to investigate the contribution of the studied parameters. The results showed that in GFRP bars the ratio of ultimate creep strain to the initial elastic strain decreased when the applied stresses on the bars exceeded 30% of their ultimate... 

Over the last few decades, polymer concrete (PC) has been finding use in quick repairing of concrete structures. However, there have been only few studies on the mechanical behavior of PC. The aim of this study is to evaluate the mechanical behavior of PC using destructive and non-destructive tests (NDT). The mixtures were prepared with three different polymer ratios (10%, 12%, and 14%) and two different coarse aggregate sizes (4.75–9.5 mm and 9.5–19 mm). The samples were subsequently tested under three different temperatures (−15 °C, +25 °C, and +65 °C). The Taguchi method and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to optimize PC mixes based on the compressive, splitting-tensile, and... 

Microalgae as a candidate for production of biodiesel, possesses a hard cell wall that prevents intracellular lipids leaving out from the cells. Direct or in situ supercritical transesterification has the potential for destruction of microalgae hard cell wall and conversion of extracted lipids to biodiesel that consequently reduces the total energy consumption. Response surface methodology combined with central composite design was applied to investigate process parameters including: Temperature, Time, Methanol-to-dry algae, Hexane-to-dry algae, and Moisture content. Thirty-two experiments were designed and performed in a batch reactor, and biodiesel efficiency between 0.44% and 99.32% was... 

In this study, the effects of pulse current parameters on corrosion resistance and mechanical properties of anodized coatings were evaluated. Hardness measurements, polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy tests were employed to investigate the mechanical properties and corrosion behavior of these coatings. Also, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) was used to analyze the surface morphology and microstructure of the coatings. It was found that the properties of anodized coatings were dependent on various parameters, among which, time, temperature and pulse current parameters (current density limit, frequency and duty cycle) were optimized. Analysis of Variance... 

Background: Comparison of the kinematic variability and dynamic stability of the trunk between healthy and low back pain patient groups can contribute to gaining valuable information about the movement patterns and neuromotor strategies involved in various movement tasks. Methods: Fourteen chronic low back pain patients with mild symptoms and twelve healthy male volunteers performed repeated trunk flexion-extension movements in the sagittal plane at three different speeds: 20 cycles/min, self-selected, and 40 cycles/min. Mean standard deviations, coefficient of variation and variance ratio as variability measures; maximum finite-time Lyapunov exponents and maximum Floquet multipliers as... 

Extraction of the essential oil from a medicinal plant called Dracocephalum kotschyi Boiss was performed by green technology of supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) extraction. A Taguchi orthogonal array design with an OA16 (45) matrix was used to evaluate the effects of five extraction variables: pressure of 150-310bar, temperature of 40-60°C, average particle size of 250-1000μm, CO2 flow rate of 2-10ml/s and dynamic extraction time of 30-100min. The optimal conditions to obtain the maximum extraction yield were at 240bar, 60°C, 500μm, 10ml/s and 100min. The extraction yield under the above conditions was 2.72% (w/w) which is more than two times the maximum extraction yield that has been... 

The present work focuses on the development of an interpretable quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) model for predicting the anti-HIV activities of 67 thiazolylthiourea derivatives. This set of molecules has been proposed as potent HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibitors (RT-INs). The molecules were encoded to a diverse set of molecular descriptors, spanning different physical and chemical properties. Monte Carlo (MC) sampling and multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS) techniques were used to select the most important descriptors and to predict the activity of the molecules. The most important descriptor was found to be the aspherisity index. The analysis of variance... 

In this work, age hardening behavior of an ultrafine-grained (UFG) Al6063-0.8 vol.% Al2O3 nanocomposite produced via reactive mechanical alloying followed by hot extrusion method by means of T6 heat treatment was studied. The temperature and time of solutionizing and aging were optimized by the Taguchi method. The optimal heat treatment condition was found to be solutionizing at 510 °C for 1.5 h and aging at 170 °C for 8 h. The signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio and analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that the solutionizing temperature was the most significant factor. A novel cyclic solution treatment was developed for age hardening of Al6063-Al2O3 nanocomposite. The results showed a considerable... 

The maximal covering location problem (MCLP) is a challenging problem with numerous applications in practice. Previous publications in the area of MCLP proposed models and presented solution methodologies to solve this problem with up to 900 nodes. Due to the fact that in real-life applications, the number of nodes could be much higher, this paper presents a customized Genetic Algorithm (GA) to solve MCLP instances, with up to 2500 nodes. Results show that the proposed approach is capable of solving problems with a fair amount of exactness. In order to fine-tune the algorithm, Tukey's Least Significant Difference (LSD) tests are employed on a set of test problems  

This article presents experimental results on the electrophoretic deposition (EPD) of bioresorbable chitosan/45S5 Bioglass® composite coatings for orthopaedic implants based on the Taguchi design of experiments (DOE) approach. The influence of EPD parameters including Bioglass® concentration, electric voltage and deposition time on deposition yield was studied by an orthogonal Taguchi array of L18 type. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and regression analysis based on the partial least-square method were used to identify the significant factors affecting the deposition yield and its stability during constant-voltage EPD. The coatings were characterised by high resolution scanning... 

Dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-selective ion monitoring (GC-MS-SIM) was applied to the determination of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) in water samples. The effect of main parameters affecting the extraction efficiency was studied simultaneously. From selected parameters, volume of extraction solvent, volume of dispersive solvent, and salt concentration were optimized by means of experimental design. The statistical parameters of the derived model were R 2=0.9987 and F=17.83. The optimal conditions were 42.0μL for extraction solvent, 0.30mL for disperser solvent and 5% (w/v) for sodium chloride. The calibration linear range... 

This paper presents a study of the Taguchi design method to optimise the rate of electrophoretic deposition (EPD) of Bioglass® particles from aqueous suspensions. The effect of Bioglass® concentration, pH and electric field was investigated. An orthogonal array of L16 type with mixed levels of the control factors was utilized. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and regression analysis based on the partial least-square method were used to identify the significant factors affecting the deposition rate and its stability during constant-voltage EPD. It was found that the pH of the suspension significantly influences the deposition rate whereas the applied electric field has the smallest... 

Background: Evidence is needed regarding the air pollutant components and their sources responsible for associations between particle mass concentrations and human cardiovascular outcomes. We previously found associations between circulating biomarkers of inflammation and mass concentrations of quasi-ultrafine particles ≤ 0.25 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM0.25) in a panel cohort study of 60 elderly subjects with coronary artery disease living in the Los Angeles Basin.Objectives: We reassessed biomarker associations with PM0.25 using new particle composition data.Methods: Weekly biomarkers of inflammation were plasma interleukin-6 (IL-6) and soluble tumor necrosis factor-α receptor II... 

STUDY DESIGN.: An experimental design to investigate activation patterns of trunk muscles during multidirectional exertions. OBJECTIVES.: To evaluate trunk muscle activation patterns in varying directions and moment magnitudes during an isometric task, and to investigate the effects of angle and level of isometric exertion on the electromyography (EMG) variability of trunk muscles in upright posture. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA.: Few studies have investigated trunk muscle activation patterns in multidirectional exertions with different moment magnitudes. METHODS.: A total of 12 asymptomatic male subjects were participated in the study. The EMG activity of 10 selected trunk muscles was... 

Recurrence quantification analysis (RQA), a nonlinear method of postural analysis, was used to explore the effects of dual-tasking on postural performance in people with nonspecific low back pain (LBP) compared with healthy participants. Postural performance was quantified by RQA % recurrence, % determinism, entropy and trend. People with nonspecific LBP (n = 22) and unimpaired individuals (n = 22) randomly performed quiet standing tasks with three levels of difficulty (rigid-surface eyes open, rigid-surface eyes closed and foam-surface eyes closed). These tasks were performed in isolation or concurrently with an easy or difficult cognitive task. Increasing postural difficulty was associated... 

The synthesis of a novel superabsorbent hydrogel with natural hybrid backbone via graft copolymerization of acrylamide (AAm) onto kappa-carrageenan (kC, as a polysaccharide) and gelatin (as a protein) under classic thermal conditions is described. The Taguchi method as a strong experimental design tool was used for synthesis optimization. A series of hydrogels were synthesized by proposed conditions of Qualitek-4 Software. Considering the results of 9 trials according to analysis of variance (ANOVA), optimum conditions were proposed. The swelling behavior of optimum hydrogel was measured in various solutions with pH values ranging from 1 to 13. In addition, swelling kinetics, swelling in... 

Several studies have investigated postural control in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) deficient patients; yet the contribution of cognitive processing (attention) in the postural control of these patients is still unclear. A dual-task design was used to determine the effects of a concurrent digit span memory task on standing balance in a group of ACL patients (n = 27) compared with a group of matched, healthy participants (n = 27). In double limb stance, three levels of postural difficulty were studies on a force platform (rigid surface with eyes open, rigid surface with eyes closed, and foam surface with eyes closed). There were three cognitive conditions (no cognitive task, easy cognitive...