Sharif Digital Repository

Background: A small amount of methanol is produced endogenously in the human body but it is efficiently metabolized by alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and other enzymes, and the products eliminated without harm. In this study, we present a new entity of inborn error of methanol metabolism due to a mutation in the ADH1C gene coding for the γ subunit that is part of several ADH isoenzymes. Results: This disorder was discovered in an 11.58-year-old boy. During one 9-month hospital admission, he had periods of 1–4 days during which he was comatose, and between these periods he was sometimes verbose and euphoric, and had ataxia, dysarthria. Following hemodialysis treatments, he became conscious and... 

In this paper, a wideband coupled-resonator microstrip bandpass filter is designed and experimentally demonstrated in the S-Band. The filter is comprised of quarter-wavelength hair-pin resonators, reducing resonator and filter footprint compared to conventional hairpin designs. Additionally, it is considerably forgiving to fabrication tolerances and yields remarkably close matched results between theory, simulation, and measured results. One demonstration presented has minimal insertion loss ${(< 1{dB})}$ for the entire wide bandwidth of 3.4 GHz to 4.2 GHz. Wider bandwidths up to 60% are also observed using the design. The proposed filter is an attractive solution when space is a critical... 

The CLLC resonant converter is a promising candidate for high efficient, bidirectional power transfer applications such as vehicle-to-grid (V2G) on-board charger and hybrid vehicle DC-DC converter. Nevertheless, the analysis of CLLC still remains challenging because of its complex multi-resonant nature and several storage elements. In this paper, a circuit analysis method based on change of variables is presented that maps the state space equations into two decoupled sets of equations. The analyses are carried out in two state-plane coordinate systems, then the results are mapped onto the original region. The proposed method is then used to thoroughly analyze the CLLC resonant converter... 

Representational similarity analysis (RSA) summarizes activity patterns for a set of experimental conditions into a matrix composed of pairwise comparisons between activity patterns. Two examples of such matrices are the condition-by-condition inner product and correlation matrix. These representational matrices reside on the manifold of positive semidefinite matrices, called the Riemannian manifold. We hypothesize that representational similarities would be more accurately quantified by considering the underlying manifold of the representational matrices. Thus, we introduce the distance on the Riemannian manifold as a metric for comparing representations. Analyzing simulated and real fMRI... 

A novel catalyst of sulfidated iron-nickel supported on biochar (S-FeNi@BC) was synthesized to activate persulfate (PS) for the removal of trichloroethylene (TCE). A number of techniques including XRD, SEM, TEM, FTIR, BET and EDS were employed to characterize S-FeNi@BC. The influence of sulfur to iron ratio (S/F) on TCE removal was investigated by batch experiments and a higher TCE removal (98.4%) was achieved at 0.22/1 ratio of S/F in the PS/S-FeNi@BC oxidation system. A dominant role in iron species conversion was noticed by the addition of sulfur in FeNi@BC system. Significant enhancement in recycling of the dissolved and surface Fe(II) was confirmed which contributed to the generation of... 

In Fenton-like oxidation processes, the use of biochar (BC) as support material for the nanoscale zero valent iron-nickel (nZVI-Ni) bimetallic particles attained much attention to activate persulfate (PS) for TCE degradation in aqueous medium. In present work, nZVI-Ni@BC particles with nZVI-Ni to BC mass ratio of 1:5 exhibited excellent results (> 99 % ± 0.24) for TCE degradation. The physico-chemical characteristics, surface morphologies, and elemental mapping of the synthesized nZVI-Ni@BC particles investigated through SEM, EDX, TEM, XPS, XRD, BET and FTIR spectroscopy. For the nZVI-Ni@BC-persulfate system, the effects of PS concentration, initial pH, inorganic ions and natural organic... 

The Ξb-π+π- invariant mass spectrum is investigated with an event sample of proton-proton collisions at s=13 TeV, collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2016-2018 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb-1. The ground state Ξb- is reconstructed via its decays to J/ψΞ- and J/ψΛK-. A narrow resonance, labeled Ξb(6100)-, is observed at a Ξb-π+π- invariant mass of 6100.3±0.2(stat)±0.1(syst)±0.6(Ξb-) MeV, where the last uncertainty reflects the precision of the Ξb- baryon mass. The upper limit on the Ξb(6100)- natural width is determined to be 1.9 MeV at 95% confidence level. The low Ξb(6100)- signal yield observed in data does not allow a measurement of the quantum numbers... 

The simultaneous oxidation performance of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) by nanoscale calcium peroxide particles (nCaO2) activated with ferric ions (Fe(III)) and the mechanism of the enhancement of BTEX degradation by L-cysteine (L-cys) were investigated. The batch experimental results showed that the nCaO2/Fe(III)/L-cys process was effective in the destruction of BTEX in both ultrapure water and actual groundwater. A proper amount of L-cys could enhance BTEX degradation due to the promotion of Fe(II)/Fe(III) redox cycles by the participation of L-cys, but an excessive presence of L-cys would cause inhibition. Adding 1.0 mM L-cys to the nCaO2/Fe(III) system, the... 

A novel colorimetric nanosensor is reported for the selective and sensitive determination of cysteine using magnetic-sulfur, nitrogen graphene quantum dots (Fe3O4/S, N-GQDs), and gold nanoparticles (Au NPs). Thus, S, N-GQDs was firstly immobilized on Fe3O4 nanoparticles through its magnetization in the presence of Fe3+ in the alkali solution. The prepared Fe3O4/S, N-GQDs were dispersed in cysteine solution resulting in its quick adsorption on the surface of the Fe3O4/S, N-GQDs through hydrogen bonding interaction. Then, Au NPs solution was added to this mixture that after a short time, the color of Au NPs changed from red to blue, the intensity of surface plasmon resonance peak of Au NPs at... 

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is an imaging tool that is used to analyze the brain’s functions. Brain functional connectivity analysis based on fMRI signals often calculated correlations among time series in different areas of the brain. For FC analysis most prior research works generate the brain graphs based on linear correlations, however, the nonlinear behavior of the brain can lower the accuracy of such graphs. Usually, the Pearson correlation coefficient is used which has limitations in revealing nonlinear relationships. One of the proper methods for nonlinear analysis is the Kernel trick. This method maps the data into a high dimensional space and calculates the linear... 

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a non-invasive method that helps to analyze brain function based on BOLD signal fluctuations. Functional Connectivity (FC) catches the transient relationship between various brain regions usually measured by correlation analysis. The elements of the correlation matrix are between -1 to 1. Some of them are very small values usually related to weak and spurious correlations due to noises and artifacts. They can not be concluded as real strong correlations between brain regions and their existence could make a misconception and leads to fake results. It is crucial to make a conclusion based on reliable and informative correlations. In order to... 

The novel coronavirus pandemic has rapidly spread around the world since December 2019. Various techniques have been applied in identification of SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 infection including computed tomography imaging, whole genome sequencing, and molecular methods such as reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). This review article discusses the diagnostic methods currently being deployed for the SARS-CoV-2 identification including optical biosensors and point-of-care diagnostics that are on the horizon. These innovative technologies may provide a more accurate, sensitive and rapid diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 to manage the present novel coronavirus outbreak, and could be... 

Pr and Co co-doped BiFeO3 multiferroics of the following composition BiCoxPrxFe1-2xO3, where (x = 0.00, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, 0.20 and 0.25) were prepared via sol-gel route. XRD, FTIR, SEM, VSM and VNA were used to evaluate the structural, phase, morphological and electromagnetic properties of Pr and Co co-doped multiferroics. All the undoped and Pr–Co co-doped multiferroics were of single rhombohedral phased whereas at higher concentration the orthorhombic structure was present. FTIR analysis exhibited the presence of orthorhombic phase. SEM images revealed that the grains of Pr and Co doped multiferroics are circular and elliptical in shape. Dielectric and electromagnetic properties were... 

In this research, a facile, two-step synthesis of Fe3O4–LCysteine–graphene quantum dots (GQDs) nanocomposite is reported. This synthesis method comprises the preparation of GQDs via hydrothermal route, which should be conjugated to the LCysteine functionalized core–shell magnetic structure with the core of about 7.5-nm iron oxide nanoparticle and 3.5-nm LCysteine shell. LCysteine, as a biocompatible natural amino acid, was used to link magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs) with GQDs. X-ray powder diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray were used to investigate the presence and formation of MNPs, L Cysteine functionalized MNPs,... 

Carbonaceous materials (CMs) have been applied extensively for enhancing the catalytic performance of environmental catalysts, however, the self-catalytic mechanism of CMs for groundwater remediation is rarely investigated. Herein, we unveiled the catalytic ability of various CMs via Fe(III) reduction through polyvinyl alcohol-coated calcium peroxide nanoparticles (PVA@nCP) for trichloroethylene (TCE) removal. Among selected CMs (graphite (G), biochar (BC) and activated carbon (AC)), BC and AC showed enhancement of TCE removal of 89% and 98% via both adsorption and catalytic degradation. BET and SEM analyses showed a higher adsorption capacity of AC (27.8%) than others. The generation of... 

This study demonstrated the prolonged benefits of polyvinyl-coated calcium peroxide (PVA@CP) in Fe(II)/nFeS mediated Fenton-like reaction. PVA@CP was prepared by a coating of PVA on calcium peroxide (CP) and synthesized nano-sized iron sulfide (nFeS) was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) elemental mapping, X-ray diffractometry (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and Fourier transmission infrared (FTIR) techniques. Trichloroethylene (TCE) degradation in various oxic environments (H2O2, CP, or... 

A novel colorimetric nanosensor is reported for the selective and sensitive determination of cysteine using magnetic-sulfur, nitrogen graphene quantum dots (Fe3O4/S, N-GQDs), and gold nanoparticles (Au NPs). Thus, S, N-GQDs was firstly immobilized on Fe3O4 nanoparticles through its magnetization in the presence of Fe3+ in the alkali solution. The prepared Fe3O4/S, N-GQDs were dispersed in cysteine solution resulting in its quick adsorption on the surface of the Fe3O4/S, N-GQDs through hydrogen bonding interaction. Then, Au NPs solution was added to this mixture that after a short time, the color of Au NPs changed from red to blue, the intensity of surface plasmon resonance peak of Au NPs at... 

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is an imaging tool that is used to analyze the brain’s functions. Brain functional connectivity analysis based on fMRI signals often calculated correlations among time series in different areas of the brain. For FC analysis most prior research works generate the brain graphs based on linear correlations, however, the nonlinear behavior of the brain can lower the accuracy of such graphs. Usually, the Pearson correlation coefficient is used which has limitations in revealing nonlinear relationships. One of the proper methods for nonlinear analysis is the Kernel trick. This method maps the data into a high dimensional space and calculates the linear... 

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a non-invasive method that helps to analyze brain function based on BOLD signal fluctuations. Functional Connectivity (FC) catches the transient relationship between various brain regions usually measured by correlation analysis. The elements of the correlation matrix are between -1 to 1. Some of them are very small values usually related to weak and spurious correlations due to noises and artifacts. They can not be concluded as real strong correlations between brain regions and their existence could make a misconception and leads to fake results. It is crucial to make a conclusion based on reliable and informative correlations. In order to... 

The novel coronavirus pandemic has rapidly spread around the world since December 2019. Various techniques have been applied in identification of SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 infection including computed tomography imaging, whole genome sequencing, and molecular methods such as reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). This review article discusses the diagnostic methods currently being deployed for the SARS-CoV-2 identification including optical biosensors and point-of-care diagnostics that are on the horizon. These innovative technologies may provide a more accurate, sensitive and rapid diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 to manage the present novel coronavirus outbreak, and could be...