Sharif Digital Repository

A nonlinear seismic soil-pile-structure interaction (SSPSI) analysis of fixed offshore platforms constructed on pile foundations including both vertical and battered piles is presented. The analysis is carried out in time domain and the effects of soil nonlinearity, discontinuity at pile soil interfaces, energy dissipation through soil radiation damping, formation of soil layers on bed rock, structural material nonlinearity and geometrical nonlinearity are considered. A combination of FEM approach and BNWF approach is used in modeling pile (substructure), platform structure (superstructure) and soil media. Gapping in clay is modeled by a special connector configuration. To find out the... 

Gradual chemical (displacement) reaction between CuO and Al powders during high-energy attrition milling under a high purity argon atmosphere was studied. Differential thermal analysis (DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques were employed to study the solid-state reaction. It was shown that the solid-state reaction occurred during mechanical alloying (MA) and resulted in the dissolution of copper into the aluminum lattice and formation of nanometric alumina particles. The reinforcement particles were mostly distributed at the grain boundaries of Al matrix with an average crystallite size of about 50 nm. In DTA curve of the milled powders, a small... 

This article examines the physical and mechanical characteristics of mixtures of two different synthetic rubbers, namely styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) and nitril-butadiene rubber (NBR), with novolac type phenolicresin (PH). According to Taguchi experimental design method, it is shown that the addition of PH increases the crosslinking density of rubber phase probably due to its curative effects. Thermal analysis of the blends indicates that, contrary to NBR/PH blend, thermal stability of SBR/PH blend is dependent on sulfur content due to predominant polysulfidic crosslinks formed in SBR. Slight shift in glass-transition temperature (Tg) of pure SBR and NBR vulcanizates by the addition of PH... 

A problem associated with modeling and control of the power factor correction rectifiers is that the ac variations in duty cycle, as well as in the ac input voltage and current are not small, and hence the traditional small signal analysis is not justified. Nonetheless, the low-frequency components of the converter can be modeled via the circuit averaging technique, but the resulting equivalent circuits are, in general, time varying and highly nonlinear. Nonlinear stability analysis methods are not appropriate for analysis and control design of such complicated circuits. In this paper a piecewise affine approximation is introduced for modeling of switching circuits. This approach makes the... 

Background: Electromyography (EMG) is the study of muscle function through the inquiry of electrical signals that the muscles emanate. EMG signals collected from the surface of the skin (Surface Electromyogram: sEMG) can be used in different applications such as recognizing musculoskeletal neural based patterns intercepted for hand prosthesis movements. Current systems designed for controlling the prosthetic hands either have limited functions or can only be used to perform simple movements or use excessive amount of electrodes in order to achieve acceptable results. In an attempt to overcome these problems we have proposed an intelligent system to recognize hand movements and have provided... 

Niosomes, as a kind of drug delivery system, is widely used for the topical delivery of lipophilic drugs. Optimization of niosomes plays an essential role in enhancing their therapeutic efficiencies. This study aims to prepare an optimized niosomal formulation of simvastatin (nSIM), a lipophilic member of statins, through the experiment (Response Surface methodology). Optimized niosomes were characterized in size, polydispersity index (PDI), entrapment efficiency (EE), stability, releasing pattern, and antimicrobial activity. The different molar ratio of surfactant and cholesterol were applied to prepare various formulation of simvastatin loaded niosome. Mean particle size and size... 

Niosomes, as a kind of drug delivery system, is widely used for the topical delivery of lipophilic drugs. Optimization of niosomes plays an essential role in enhancing their therapeutic efficiencies. This study aims to prepare an optimized niosomal formulation of simvastatin (nSIM), a lipophilic member of statins, through the experiment (Response Surface methodology). Optimized niosomes were characterized in size, polydispersity index (PDI), entrapment efficiency (EE), stability, releasing pattern, and antimicrobial activity. The different molar ratio of surfactant and cholesterol were applied to prepare various formulation of simvastatin loaded niosome. Mean particle size and size... 

The relative vulnerability of spinal motion segments to different loading combinations remains unknown. The meta-analysis described here using the results of a validated L2-L3 nonlinear viscoelastic finite element model was designed to investigate the critical loading and its effect on the internal mechanics of the human lumbar spine. A Box-Behnken experimental design was used to design the magnitude of seven independent variables associated with loads, rotations and velocity of motion. Subsequently, an optimization method was used to find the primary and secondary variables that influence spine mechanical output related to facet forces, disc pressure, ligament forces, annulus matrix... 

This work focused on the design of new pH-responsive nanoparticles for controlled delivery of anticancer drug doxorubicin (Dox). Nanoparticles of poly(methacrylic acid)-polysorbate 80-grafted starch (PMAA-PS 80-g-St) were synthesized by using a one-pot method that enabled simultaneous grafting of PMAA and PS 80 onto starch and nanoparticle formation in an aqueous medium. The particles were characterized by FTIR, 1H NMR, TEM, DLS, and potentiometric titration. Dox loading and in vitro release from the nanoparticles were investigated. The FTIR and 1H NMR confirmed the chemical composition of the graft terpolymer. The nanoparticles were relatively spherical with narrow size distribution and... 

A sensitive glutamate biosensor is prepared based on glutamate dehydrogenase/vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (GLDH, VACNTs). Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes were grown on a silicon substrate by direct current plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (DC-PECVD) method. The electrochemical behavior of the synthesized VACNTs was investigated by cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopic methods. Glutamate dehydrogenase covalently attached on tip of VACNTs. The electrochemical performance of the electrode for detection of glutamate was investigated by cyclic and differential pulse voltammetry. Differential pulse voltammetric determinations of glutamate are performed... 

A new type of composite material based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and sol-gel chemistry was prepared and used as sorbent for needle trap device (NTD). The synthesized composite was prepared in a way to disperse CNTs molecules in a sol-gel polymeric network. CNT/silica composites with different CNT doping levels were successfully prepared, and the extraction capability of each composite was evaluated. Effects of surfactant and the oxidation duration of CNTs on the extraction efficiency of synthesized composites were also investigated. The applicability of the synthesized sorbent was examined by developing a method based on needle trap extraction (NTE) and gas chromatography mass spectrometry... 

Mean field independent component analysis (MF-ICA) along with other chemometric techniques was proposed for obtaining more information from multi-component gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric (GC-MS) signals of essential oils (mandarin and lemon as examples). Using these techniques, some fundamental problems during the GC-MS analysis of essential oils such as varying baseline, presence of different types of noise and co-elution have been solved. The parameters affecting MF-ICA algorithm were screened using a 25 factorial design. The optimum conditions for MF-ICA algorithm were followed by deconvolution of complex GC-MS peak clusters. The number of independent components (ICs) (chemical... 

In this paper the field-effect transistor DNA biosensor for detecting hepatitis B virus (HBV) based on indium tin oxide nanowires (ITO NWs) in label free approach has been fabricated. Because of ITO nanowires intensive conductance and functional modified surface, the probe immobilization and target hybridization were increased strongly. The high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) measurement showed that ITO nanowires were crystalline and less than 50 nm in diameter. The single-stranded hepatitis B virus DNA (SS-DNA) was immobilized as probe on the Au-modified nanowires. The DNA targets were measured in a linear concentration range from 1fM to 10 µM. The detection limit of... 

The performance of nanoparticles for biomedical applications is often assessed by their narrow size distribution, suitable magnetic saturation and low toxicity effects. In this work, superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) with different size, shape and saturation magnetization levels were synthesized via a co-precipitation technique using ferrous salts with a Fe3+/Fe2+ mole ratio equal to 2. A parametric study is conducted, based on a uniform design-of-experiments methodology and a critical polymer/iron mass ratio (r-ratio) for obtaining SPION with narrow size distribution, suitable magnetic saturation, and optimum biocompatibility is identified. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) has been... 

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were immobilised with cobalt nanoparticles and analyzed by transmission electron microscopy. This modification procedure substantially improved colloidal dispersion of the immobilised MWCNTs in water and organic solvents, yielding uniform and stable thin films for modification of the glassy carbon electrode surface. The modified electrode showed an efficient catalytic role for the electrochemical oxidation of thioridazine (TR), leading to remarkable decrease in its oxidation overpotential of approximately 100 mV and enhancement of the kinetics of the electrode reaction, which can be confirmed by increasing in the peak current and sharpness of the peak.... 

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an irreversible neurological disorder that progresses gradually and can cause severe cognitive and behavioral impairments. This disease is currently considered a social and economic incurable issue due to its complicated and multifactorial characteristics. Despite decades of extensive research, we still lack definitive AD diagnostic and effective therapeutic tools. Consequently, one of the most challenging subjects in modern medicine is the need for the development of new strategies for the treatment of AD. A large body of evidence indicates that amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide fibrillation plays a key role in the onset and progression of AD. Recent studies have reported... 

Chondroitinase ABC I (cABC I) has received notable attention in treatment of spinal cord injuries and its application as therapeutics has been limited due to low thermal stability at physiological temperature. In this study, cABC I enzyme was immobilized on the dextran-coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles through physical adsorption to improve the thermal stability. The nanoparticles were characterized using XRD, SEM, VSM, and FTIR analyses. Response surface methodology and central composite design were employed to assess factors affecting the activity of immobilized cABC I. Experimental results showed that pH 6.3, temperature 24 °C, enzyme/support mass ratio 1.27, and incubation time 5.7 h were the... 

Background: Researchers are trying to study the mechanism of neural stem cells (NSCs) differentiation to oligodendrocyte-like cells (OLCs) as well as to enhance the selective differentiation of NSCs to oligodendrocytes. However, the limitation in nerve tissue acces-sibility to isolate the NSCs as well as their differentiation toward oligodendrocytes is still challenging. Purpose: In the present study, a hybrid polycaprolactone (PCL)-gelatin nanofiber scaffold mimicking the native extracellular matrix and axon morphology to direct the differentiation of bone marrow-derived NSCs to OLCs was introduced. Materials and Methods: In order to achieve a sustained release of T3, this factor was... 

Biomass, originates from plant- or animal-based materials with a huge potential to be reused. Here we report a simple, rapid and inexpensive method for preparation of modified biochars derived from the banana peel followed by their applications in pipette-tip micro solid-phase extraction (PT-µSPE). Due to the contribution of various effective parameters on modification of banana peel biochars (BPBs), Taguchi design was used to optimize activation temperature, activation repetition, treatment material and impregnation ratio. Efficiency of the prepared BPBs were studied by extraction of twelve various pesticides, as model analytes with an extended range of log P values (1.4–5.7), followed by...