Sharif Digital Repository

A method based on direct immersion solid-phase microextraction (DI-SPME) coupled with high performance liquid chromatography combined with post-column photochemically induced fluorimetry derivatization and fluorescence detection (HPLC-PIF-FD) was developed to extract three pyrethroid insecticides, i.e. cyfluthrin, cypermethrin, and flumethrin from water samples. A sol-gel based coating fiber using 3-(trimethoxysilyl propyl) amine as precursor was prepared and used for the extraction of the pyrethroids from groundwater samples. A post-column photochemical reactor was designed and constructed for the derivatization of these environmentally important pollutants to increase their fluorescence... 

A carbon-paste electrode (CPE) modified with iron(II) phthalocyanine was used for the sensitive voltammetric determination of epinephrine (EN). The electrochemical response characteristics of the modified electrode toward EN, ascorbic acid (AA) and uric acid (UA) were investigated by cyclic and differential pulse voltammetry (CV and DPV). The results show an efficient catalytic activity of the electrode for the electro-oxidation of EN, which leads to improvement of reversibility of the electrode response and lowering its overpotential by more than 100 mV. The effect of pH and potential sweep rate on the mechanism of the electrode process was investigated. The modified electrode exhibits an... 

Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) approach was carried out for the prediction of inhibitory activity of some novel quinazolinone derivatives on serotonin (5-HT7) using modified ant colony (ACO) method and adaptive neuro-fuzzy interference system (ANFIS) combined with shuffling cross-validation technique. A modified ACO algorithm is utilized to select the most important variables in QSAR modeling and then these variables were used as inputs of ANFIS to predict 5-HT7 receptor binding activities of quinazolinone derivatives. The best descriptors describing the inhibition mechanism are Qmax, Se, Hy, PJI3 and DELS which are among electronic, constitutional, geometric and... 

The photocatalytic degradation of Reactive Blue 19 (RB19) dye has been studied using TiO2 nanofibre as the photocatalyst in aqueous solution under UV irradiation. Titanium dioxide nanofibre was prepared using a templating method with tetraisopropylorthotitanate as a precursor. The experiments were carried out in the presence of the TiO2 nanofibre, and the effects of pH and electron acceptors on the degradation process were investigated. In order to observe the quality of the aqueous solution, chemical oxygen demand (COD) measurements were also carried out before and after the treatments. The photocatalytic decomposition of RB19 was most efficient in acidic solution. With the addition of... 

There are high attractions in the development of conducting polymer (CP) coatings to improve the electrochemical properties and biocompatibility of electrodes in the area of biosensors. A new type of the modified electrodes is prepared in a layer-by-layer process by using multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) and poly-pyrrole. In this procedure, the glassy carbon electrode is casted by a drop suspension of MWCNT, which leads to form a thin film of nanotube on its surface. In the second step, electrochemical polymerization of pyrrole in the presence of tiron (used as doping anion) is performed on the surface of the MWCNT pre-coated electrode. The modification procedure led to fabrication of a... 

Multi-walled carbon nanotube decorated with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs-MWCNT) is used as an effective strategy for modification of the surface of pyrolytic graphite electrode (PGE). This modification procedure improved colloidal dispersion of the decorated MWCNTs in water, affording uniform and stable thin films for altering the surface properties of the working electrode. Robust electrode for sensing applications is obtained in a simple solvent evaporation process. The electrochemical behavior of sumatriptan (Sum) at the bare PGE and AgNPs-MWCNT modified PGE is investigated. The results indicate that the AgNPs-MWCNT modified PGE significantly enhanced the oxidation peak current of Sum. A... 

Purpose.To translate and validate the Persian version of the Arthritis Measurement Scales 2-Short Form (AIMS2-SF) in patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee. Method.The translation and cultural adaptation of the original questionnaire was carried out in accordance with published guidelines. One hundred and fourteen consecutive Persian-speaking patients with OA of the knee were participated in this study. The Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and visual analogue scales (VAS) for pain and joint stiffness were used to test convergent validity of the Persian AIMS2-SF. In addition, 35 randomly selected patients were asked to complete the questionnaire 3 days later for the second time.... 

Cardiotocograph (CTG) is widely used in everyday clinical practice for fetal surveillance, where it is used to record fetal heart rate (FHR) and uterine activity (UA). These two biosignals can be used for antepartum and intrapartum fetal monitoring and are, in fact, nonlinear and non-stationary. CTG recordings are often corrupted by artifacts such as missing beats in FHR, high-frequency noise in FHR and UA signals. In this paper, an empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method is applied on CTG signals. A recursive algorithm is first utilized to eliminate missing beats. High-frequency noise is reduced using EMD followed by the partial reconstruction (PAR) method, where the noise order is... 

The study design is a prospective, case-control. The aim of this study was to develop a reliable measurement technique for the assessment of lumbar spine kinematics using digital video fluoroscopy in a group of patients with low back pain (LBP) and a control group. Lumbar segmental instability (LSI) is one subgroup of nonspecific LBP the diagnosis of which has not been clarified. The diagnosis of LSI has traditionally relied on the use of lateral functional (flexion-extension) radiographs but use of this method has proven unsatisfactory. Fifteen patients with chronic low back pain suspected to have LSI and 15 matched healthy subjects were recruited. Pulsed digital videofluoroscopy was used... 

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... 

A crude phenolic glycolipid extract from Mycobacterium bovis BCG was fractionated by column chromatography. A reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method with UV detection at 275nm was developed for simultaneous detection and separation of phenolic glycolipids (PGLs) in Mycobacterium bovis BCG. This analysis provides a good resolution. Different solvent systems and columns for HPLC were compared. A system composed of acetonitrile-water in the ratio of 0→80% at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min and C8 analytical column were found to be optimum for HPLC of the phenolic glycolipids. This simple method is therefore appropriate to purify these compounds present in M. bovis extract... 

In this paper, the robust bounded-input bounded-output stability of a large class of linear time invariant fractional order families of systems with real parametric uncertainties is analyzed. The transfer functions contain polynomials in fractional powers of the Laplace variable s, possibly in combination with exponentials of fractional powers of s. Using the concept of the value set and a generalization of the zero exclusion condition theorem, a theorem to check the robust bounded-input bounded-output stability of these families of systems is presented. An upper cutoff frequency for drawing the value sets is provided as well. Finally, two numerical examples are given to illustrate results... 

Maximal strength measurements of the trunk have been used to evaluate the maximum functional capacity of muscles and the potential mechanical overload or overuse of the lumbar spine tissues in order to estimate the risk of developing musculoskeletal injuries. A new triaxial isometric trunk strength measurement system was designed and developed in the present study, and its reliability and performance was investigated. The system consisted of three main revolute joints, equipped with torque sensors, which intersect at L5-S1 and adjustment facilities to fit the body anthropometry and to accommodate both symmetric and asymmetric postures in both seated and standing positions. The dynamics of... 

Cultural adaptation and validation of the Persian version of the Arthritis Measurement Scales 2-Short Form (AIMS2-SF). The translation and cultural adaptation of the original questionnaire was carried out in accordance with published guidelines. Three hundred and fifty consecutive Persian-speaking patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were asked to complete the AIMS2-SF, the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), and four visual analog scales (VAS) for pain, joint stiffness, and patient's and physician's global assessment to test convergent validity. In addition, 90 randomly selected patients were asked to complete the questionnaire 48 h later for the second time. Moderate to high correlation... 

Background. The Arthritis Impact Measurement Scales 2 (AIMS2) has not been translated and validated for Persian-speaking patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. This was to provide a validated instrument to measure functional disability and health-related quality of life in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee in Iran. The aim of this study was to culturally adapt and validate the AIMS2 for Persian-speaking patients with osteoarthritis of the knee in Iran. Methods. A consecutive sample of patients with knee osteoarthritis were asked to complete the AIMS2, the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and four visual analog scales for pain, joint stiffness, patient's and physician's global... 

In this paper multivariate response surface methodology (RSM) has been used for the optimization of hydrodistillation-headspace solvent microextraction (HD-HSME) of thymol and carvacrol in Thymus transcaspicus. Quantitative determination of compounds of interest was performed simultaneously using gas chromatography coupled with flame ionization detector (GC-FID). Parameters affecting the extraction efficiency were assessed and the optimized values were 5 min, 2 μL and 3 min for the extraction time, micro-drop volume and cooling time after extraction, respectively. The amounts of analyte extracted increased with plant weight. The calibration curves were linear in the ranges of 6.25-81.25 and... 

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.... 

Gradient reproducing kernel particle method (GRKPM) is a meshless technique which incorporates the first gradients of the function into the reproducing equation of RKPM. Therefore, in two-dimensional space GRKPM introduces three types of shape functions rather than one. The robustness of GRKPM's shape functions is established by reconstruction of a third-order polynomial. To enforce the essential boundary conditions (EBCs), GRKPM's shape functions are modified by transformation technique. By utilizing the modified shape functions, the weak form of the nonlinear evolutionary Buckley-Leverett (BL) equation is discretized in space, rendering a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations... 

Liquid-liquid-liquid microextraction (LLLME) in combination with HPLC and UV detection has been used as a sensitive method for the determination of ephedrine in urine samples. Extraction process was performed in a homemade total glass vial without using a Teflon ring, usually employed. Ephedrine was first extracted from 3.5 mL of urine sample (pH 12) into a microfilm of toluene/benzene (50:50). The analyte was subsequently back extracted into an acidic microdrop solution (pH 2) suspended in the organic phase. The extract was then injected into the HPLC system directly. An enrichment factor of 137 along with a good sample clean-up was obtained under the optimized conditions. The calibration...