Sharif Digital Repository

Tissue transglutaminase (TG2) is a unique multifunctional enzyme. The enzyme possesses enzymatic activities such as transamidation/crosslinking and non-enzymatic functions such as cell migration and signal transduction. TG2 has been shown to be involved in molecular mechanisms of cancers and several neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. The present study aimed at cloning and expression of full length human TG2 in Bac-to-Bac baculovirus expression system and evaluation of its activity. Methods: pFastBac HTA donor vector containing coding sequence of human TG2 was constructed. The construct was transformed to DH10Bac for generating recombinant bacmid. The verified bacmid was... 

We use the 3D vectorial Gaussian beam tracing method to model millimeter wave propagation. We simulate the propagation of Gaussian beams in a large scale environment at 62.4 GHz. First, a known far field pattern of the transmitter antenna is expanded into a set of Gaussian beams. We chose Gabor expansion based method to expanding radiating field into Gaussian beams. Then, a Gaussian beam tracing model considering reflections and transmission is used to represent urban microcell propagation. We use a phase matching method to find reflected Gaussian beam The results of the Gaussian beam tracing simulations including line-of-sight (LOS) and non-Iine-of-sight (NLOS) propagation are compared with... 

Background: DNA methylation at promoters is largely correlated with inhibition of gene expression. However, the role of DNA methylation at enhancers is not fully understood, although a crosstalk with chromatin marks is expected. Actually, there exist contradictory reports about positive and negative correlations between DNA methylation and H3K4me1, a chromatin hallmark of enhancers. Results: We investigated the relationship between DNA methylation and active chromatin marks through genome-wide correlations, and found anti-correlation between H3K4me1 and H3K4me3 enrichment at low and intermediate DNA methylation loci. We hypothesized "seesaw" dynamics between H3K4me1 and H3K4me3 in the low... 

In trasformerless grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems, common-mode voltage (CMV) fluctuations cause leakage current flow through the stray capacitance of the PV panels. Shoot-through (SH) states in a quasi-Z-source inverter (q-ZSI), increase the amplitude of high order harmonics of CMV. In this paper, by using the modulation technique based on odd PWM (OPWM) and minor change in the Z network of the three-phase q-ZSI, the leakage current is blocked. No extra semiconductor element is added. By the proposed technique, CMV is kept nearly constant during switching cycles. The experimental results for CMV analysis in a 1kW prototype are presented to verify the theoretical analysis. IEEE  

Superstrate configuration CuInS2 (CIS) solar cells are fabricated using a spray pyrolysis method. We avoided selenization process, cyanide etching and CdS buffer layer, to keep the process 'green'. CIS layers are formed by spray pyrolysis of an aqueous precursor ink containing metal chloride salts and thiourea at 350 °C. We investigated the effect of intentional Zn doping on structural, morphological and photovoltaic response of the fabricated CIS films by dissolving ZnCl2 in aqueous precursor solution. At a zinc doping level ranging between 0.25 and 1.00 mol%, Zn doping is found to improve the CIS crystal growth and surface morphology of CIS films. Compared with the performance of the... 

The addition of alloying elements to magnesium leads to microstructural refinement and improves its properties. However, this strategy is accompanied by another concurrent phenomenon − that is − intergranular segregation and the formation of secondary phases in grain boundaries, deteriorating the properties. In this work, the efficacy of two main factors on modifying the mechanical properties and corrosion behavior of Mg-4Zn-1Al-0.2Ca alloy was investigated separately: 1) dissolution of secondary phases; and 2) grain refinement. Based on the results, heat treatment of the as-cast alloy can increase the UTS from 174.4 to 213.2 MPa, decrease the corrosion current density from 81 to 49 μA/cm2,... 

In this paper, a methodology for energy management system (EMS) based on the multi-objective receding horizon optimization (MO-RHO) is presented to find the optimal scheduling of hybrid renewable energy system (HRES). The proposed HRES which is experimentally installed in educational building comprising the PV panels, wind turbine, battery bank and diesel generator as the backup system. The data acquisition system provides input profiles for receding horizon optimizer. A mixed-integer convex programing technique is used to achieve the optimal operation regarding to two conflicting operation objectives including diesel fuel cost and battery wear cost. The Pareto frontiers are presented to... 

This paper proposes a new decentralized power management and load sharing method for a photovoltaic (PV)-based, hybrid single/three-phase-islanded microgrid consisting of various PV units, battery units, and hybrid PV/battery units. The proposed method is not limited to the systems with separate PV and battery units, and power flow among different phases is performed automatically through three-phase units. The proposed method takes into account the available PV power and battery conditions of the units to share the load among them. To cover all possible conditions of the microgrid, the operation of each unit is divided into five states in single-phase units and seven states in three-phase... 

Leakage current is originated from common-mode voltage (CMV) time variations in a grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) system and results in several deficiencies. In this paper, a new method is proposed for CMV reduction in a three-phase voltage source inverter (VSI) system. The proposed method is based on space vector modulation and it utilizes only odd and zero vectors. By using the proposed method, the number of fluctuations of the CMV waveform per switching cycle is reduced; therefore, the amount of high-frequency harmonics of CMV is decreased. In addition, because of applying both active and zero vectors by the proposed method, the total harmonic distortion becomes less than most of other... 

This paper presents solid-state ligand exchange of spin-coated colloidal lead sulfide quantum dot (PbS QD) films by methylammonium iodide (MAI) and integration of them in depleted heterojunction solar (DHS) devices having an antireflecting (AR) nanocone plastic structure. Time-resolved photoluminescence measurements determine a shorter lifetime of the charge carries on a semiconductor (TiO2) electron transfer layer for the MAI-passivated QD films as compared with those with long-chain aliphatic or short thiol ligands. Consequently, the DHS device yields improved power conversion efficiency (>125%) relative to oleic-acid-passivated PbS QD films. Using anodized aluminum oxide templates, an... 

Z-source family has been widespread in photovoltaic (PV) applications. In trasformerless grid-connected PV systems, the common mode voltage (CMV) time variations, cause the leakage current flow. This current flows through the stray capacitance of the PV panels. For a Z-Source Inverter (ZSI), the CMV would have higher high-frequency harmonics, due to the shoot through states within the switching cycles. In this paper, the CMV of a ZSI is analyzed and a simple method is proposed for the harmonic reduction of the CMV in the ZSI. The CMV reduction method is based on changing the switching states. The CMV in reduced method is compared to the CMV in the traditional ZSI in frequency domain by using... 

This paper proposes a new decentralized power management and load sharing method for a photovoltaic based islanded microgrid consisting of various photovoltaic (PV) units, battery units and hybrid PV/battery units. Unlike the previous methods in the literature, there is no need to communication among the units and the proposed method is not limited to the systems with separate PV and battery units or systems with only one hybrid unit. The proposed method takes into account the available PV power and battery conditions of the units to share the load among them. To cover all possible conditions of the microgrid, the operation of each unit is divided into five states and modified active... 

Recent studies showed that a large amount of graphene oxide accumulated in kidney and liver when it injected intravenously. Evaluation of lethal and apoptosis gene expression in these tissues, which are under stress is very important. In this paper the in vivo dose-dependent effects of graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide nanoplatelets on kidney and liver of mice were studied. Balb/C mice were treated by 20 mg/kg body weight of nanoplatelets. Molecular biology analysis showed that graphene nanoplatelets injected intravenously lead to overexpression of BAX gene in both kidney and liver tissues (P ≥ 0.01). In addition these nanoparticles significantly increase BCL2 gene expression in both... 

Distributed generation (DG) units are often interfaced to the main grid using power electronic converters including voltage-source converters (VSCs). A VSC offers dc/ac power conversion, high controllability, and fast dynamic response. Because of nonlinearities, uncertainties, and system parameters’ changes involved in the nature of a grid-connected renewable DG system, conventional linear control methods cannot completely and efficiently address all control objectives. In this paper, a nonlinear adaptive control scheme based on adaptive backstepping strategy is presented to control the operation of a grid-connected renewable DG unit. As compared to the popular vector control technique, the... 

Interaction between intracellular dynamics and extracellular matrix (ECM) generally occurred into very thin fragment of moving cell, namely lamellipodia, enables all movable cells to crawl on ECM. In fast-moving cells such as fish Keratocytes, Lamellipodia including most cell area finds a fan-like shape during migration, with a variety of aspect ratio function of fish type. In this work, our purpose is to present a novel and more complete two-dimensional continuum mathematical model of actomyosin-cytosolic two-phase flow of a self-deforming Keratocyte with circular spreaded to steady fan-like shape. In the new approach, in addition to the two-phase flow of the F-actin and cytosol, the... 

The fabrication of a suitable scaffold material is one of the major challenges for bone tissue engineering. Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is one of the most favorable matrix materials in bone tissue engineering owing to its biocompatibility and biodegradability. However, PLA suffers from some shortcomings including low degradation rate, low cell adhesion caused by its hydrophobic property, and inflammatory reactions in vivo due to its degradation product, lactic acid. Therefore, the incorporation of bioactive reinforcements is considered as a powerful method to improve the properties of PLA. This review presents a comprehensive study on recent advances in the synthesis of PLA-based biocomposites... 

In the classical parametrization of the single-diode model of photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules based on the datasheet values, first, the values of the five unknown parameters of the PV model are extracted via the values of the open-circuit voltage Voc, the short-circuit current Isc, and the voltage and current at the maximum power point Vm, Im at standard test conditions (STC). Next, using some translational formulas, the STC values of the unknown parameters are projected to the new climatic conditions other than STC. A major problem of this approach is to determine the translational formulas of the five unknown parameters of the single-diode model as a function of both temperature and... 

Fast and accurate fault detection is the primary step and one of the most important tasks in fault tolerant converters. In this paper, a fast and simple method is proposed to detect and diagnosis the faulty cell in a cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter under a short circuit fault. In this method, the reference voltage is calculated using switching control pulses and DC-Link voltages. The comparison result of the output voltage and the reference voltage is used in conjunction with active cell pulses to detect the faulty cell. To achieve this goal, the cell which is active when the Fault signal turns to “0” is detected as the faulty cell. Furthermore, consideration of generating the active... 

Carbon-doped zinc oxide/reduced graphene oxide (C-ZnO/rGO) was prepared by a facile one-pot supercritical methanol method. The synthesized C-ZnO/rGO nanocomposite with flower-like ZnO micro-rods (MRs) synergistically inherited all the advantages of carbon doping and rGO heterojunction and exhibited high photocatalytic activity for the photodegradation of methyl orange (MO) under visible light. The x-ray diffraction (XRD) results indicated that in presence of GO, a new carbon-doped phase was formed at the high temperature and pressure of supercritical methanol. The x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) at low binding energies demonstrated that the valence band of C-ZnO-rGO is up-shifted by... 

In this study, initially graphene quantum dots (GQDs) were synthesized by an electrochemical technique and hierarchical porous TiO2 were made by a sol – gel method. Subsequently, GQDs/hierarchical porous TiO2 nanocomposites were prepared by two different methods for the purpose of comparison: spin coating (SC) and electrophoretic (EP) deposition. The GQDs/hierarchical porous TiO2 nanocomposites were characterized by various analytical methods including field emission scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy and...