Sharif Digital Repository

Background: Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) is a non-invasive method for investigating the brain white matter structure and can be used to evaluate fiber bundles. However, due to practical constraints, DWI data acquired in clinics are low resolution. New method: This paper proposes a method for interpolation of orientation distribution functions (ODFs). To this end, fuzzy clustering is applied to segment ODFs based on the principal diffusion directions (PDDs). Next, a cluster is modeled by a tensor so that an ODF is represented by a mixture of tensors. For interpolation, each tensor is rotated separately. Results: The method is applied on the synthetic and real DWI data of control and... 

Industrial air pollution from point and nonpoint sources of steel complexes has drawn increasingly more public attention in the past decades. Previous research efforts have been more concentrated on point sources of particulate emissions from these complexes. However, wind-induced particulate emissions from iron ore storage piles not only result in ambient air pollution but also increase economic adverse effects to the industry by loss of process raw materials. Experiments were conducted to assess the impact of wind speed and humidity on particulate emission rates from iron ore storage piles. A wind-generating system and specific iron ore, experimental piles (L:W:H of 30:11.5:5 cm) were... 

Techniques available in graph theory can be applied to signals recorded from human brain. In network analysis of EEG signals, the individual nodes are EEG sensor locations and the edges correspond to functional relations between them that are extracted from EEG time series. In this paper, we study EEG-based directed functional networks in Alzheimer's disease (AD). To this end, directed connectivity matrices of 25 AD patients and 26 healthy subjects are processed and a number of meaningful graph theory metrics are studied. Our data show that functional networks of AD brains have significantly reduced global connectivity in alpha and beta bands (P < 0.05). The AD brains have significantly... 

Experimental permeability and diffusivity values for CO2 and CH4 through imidazolium-based ionic liquid 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide ([hmim][Tf2N]) were determined in the temperature range of 300-320K using temperature correction factor defined in our previous study. According to literature, experimental values of permeability and diffusivity obtained in this study for CO2 in [hmim][Tf2N], showed good agreement with predictive models reported by other researchers. In addition, experimental values of permeability and diffusivity for CH4 in [hmim][Tf2N] as a function of pressure have been reported in this study. Considering the results of present study and... 

Polyrotaxanes consisting of cyclodextrin rings, polyethylene glycol axes and quantum dot (QD) stoppers were synthesized and characterized. The molecular self-assembly of polyrotaxanes led to spindlelike nano-objects whose shape, size and position were dominated by QD stoppers. Due to their well-defined molecular self-assemblies, carbohydrate backbone, high functionality and several types of functional groups together with the high luminescence yield, synthesized hybrid nanostructures were recognized as promising candidates for biomedical applications. The potential applications of the molecular self-assemblies as drug-delivery systems was investigated by conjugation of doxorubicin (DOX) to... 

A ratiometric fluorescent nanoprobe is developed with a wide color variation for visual determination of spermine (SP) and spermidine (SD) in meat samples. The green emission provided from the combination of yellow emissive quantum dots and blue emissive carbon dots turns into pink when SP or SD are present. The results show that the developed sensor has good linearity in the range of 0.5–10 and 0.5–80 µM for SP and SD and suitable detection limits were achieved including 0.2 and 2.1 µM for SP and SD. The probe was highly selective in the presence of amino acids and other biogenic amines. RGB indices were extracted to build a combinational logic gate for visual and simultaneous detection of... 

Passive finite element (FE) models of the spine are commonly used to simulate intact and various pre- and postoperative pathological conditions. Being devoid of muscles, these traditional models are driven by simplistic loading scenarios, e.g., a constant moment and compressive follower load (FL) that do not properly mimic the complex in vivo loading condition under muscle exertions. We aim to develop novel passive FE models that are driven by more realistic yet simple loading scenarios, i.e., in vivo vertebral rotations and pathological-condition dependent FLs (estimated based on detailed musculoskeletal finite element (MS-FE) models). In these novel force–displacement control FE models,... 

To attain superior energy density concurrently with high power density, high-performance supercapacitors have been developed. Herein an innovative strategy has been adopted to fabricate unique binder-free electrodes composed of a unique porous structure of binary metal carbonate hydroxide nanomace-decorated hydrothermal porous carbon spheres (PCSs). Hierarchical nickel-cobalt carbonate hydroxide (NiCOCH) nanomaces, directly grown on PCSs, are used as positive electrodes for supercapacitors fabrication. Furthermore, Fe2O3@PCS composites, having benefits of highly reversible redox reaction in the negative potential window and highly porous structure, are employed as the negative electrode in... 

To attain superior energy density concurrently with high power density, high-performance supercapacitors have been developed. Herein an innovative strategy has been adopted to fabricate unique binder-free electrodes composed of a unique porous structure of binary metal carbonate hydroxide nanomace-decorated hydrothermal porous carbon spheres (PCSs). Hierarchical nickel-cobalt carbonate hydroxide (NiCOCH) nanomaces, directly grown on PCSs, are used as positive electrodes for supercapacitors fabrication. Furthermore, Fe2O3@PCS composites, having benefits of highly reversible redox reaction in the negative potential window and highly porous structure, are employed as the negative electrode in... 

A novel photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) structure, based on Haar wavelet patterns, is proposed in this paper. Its main goal is to mitigate the PAM imaging resolution and thus the time of its sampling process without compromising the image quality. Owing to the intrinsic nature of wavelet transform, this structure collects spatial and spectral components simultaneously, and this feature speeds up the sampling process by 33%. The selection of these patterns helps in better control of required conditions, such as multi-resolution imaging, to guarantee adequate image quality in comparison to previous microscopic structures. Simulation results prove the superior quality of the proposed approach... 

A novel photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) structure, based on Haar wavelet patterns, is proposed in this paper. Its main goal is to mitigate the PAM imaging resolution and thus the time of its sampling process without compromising the image quality. Owing to the intrinsic nature of wavelet transform, this structure collects spatial and spectral components simultaneously, and this feature speeds up the sampling process by 33%. The selection of these patterns helps in better control of required conditions, such as multi-resolution imaging, to guarantee adequate image quality in comparison to previous microscopic structures. Simulation results prove the superior quality of the proposed approach... 

The core-shell nanofibers, produced by the coaxial electrospinning method, are good candidates for delivery of anticancer drugs due to their continuous release without initial burst release. In this work, the N-carboxymethyl chitosan (N-CMCS)-polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) composite and core-shell nanofibers were prepared by two-nozzle and coaxial electrospinning techniques, respectively. Doxorubicin (DOX) as an anticancer drug was loaded into the N-CMCS/PVA/PCL nanofibers fabricated by two-nozzle and coaxial electrospinning. The performance of nanofibers was compared for the adsorption and controlled release of DOX against MCF-7 breast cancer cells death in vitro. The...