Sharif Digital Repository

Biogenic amines (BAs) are known as substantial indicators of the quality and safety of food. Developing rapid and visual detection methods capable of simultaneously monitoring BAs is highly desired due to their harmful effects on human health. In the present study, we have designed a multicolor sensor array consisting of two types of gold nanostructures (i.e., gold nanorods (AuNRs) and gold nanospheres (AuNSs)) for the discrimination and determination of critical BAs (i.e., spermine (SM), tryptamine (TT), ethylenediamine (EA), tyramine (TR), spermidine (SD), and histamine (HT)). The design principle of the probe was based on the metallization of silver ions on the surface of AuNRs and AuNSs... 

Deep excavation in urban areas can cause instability problems due to significant settlement at the ground surface and large movements at the excavation facing walls. One of the most popular methods used to stabilise these excavations is utilising soil-nailing method. This method has also been widely used to stabilise natural slopes and earth retaining structures. Because of the complexity involved in the mechanism of this stabilising system due to interacting effects of the soil, nails, grout and shotcrete, numerical modelling with high accuracy should be used to analyse the behaviour of the soil-nailed walls. Considering all aspects of soil-structure interaction in the present research, a... 

As the lightest structural alloys, magnesium alloys offer significant potential for improving the energy efficiency of various transportation systems. The lack of sufficient weldability of Mg alloys is a crucial barrier to their potential use in safety-critical applications. Porosity formation, grain structure engineering, solidification cracking, liquation, and liquation cracking are the key metallurgical challenges to obtain reliable and robust fusion welds in Mg alloys. This critical review highlights the current understating regarding controlling the metallurgical phenomena during fusion welding of Mg alloys and discusses the unresolved metallurgical challenges to shed light on the path... 

Background: In recent years, Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS) have been significantly progressed, opening novel horizons in reducing traffic accidents. Driver gender can be an affecting factor in the utilization of these systems. The purpose of this study is to review articles examining the effect of gender on the use of ADAS technologies. Methods: This systematic review was conducted in Scopus, Science Direct and PubMed databases using defined key-words in 2018. The retrieved articles were managed and screened through PRISMA-P protocol using EndNote X7 software. The extracted variables were divided into three categories of reaction, behavior, and outcome and also the relevant... 

Background. Temporary artery clipping facilitates safe cerebral aneurysm management, besides a risk for cerebral ischemia. We developed an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict the safe clipping time of temporary artery occlusion (TAO) during intracranial aneurysm surgery. Method. We devised a three-layer model to predict the safe clipping time for TAO. We considered age, the diameter of the right and left middle cerebral arteries (MCAs), the diameter of the right and left A1 segment of anterior cerebral arteries (ACAs), the diameter of the anterior communicating artery, mean velocity of flow at the right and left MCAs, and the mean velocity of flow at the right and left ACAs, as well... 

Extensive studies have examined the effect of variables such as demographic characteristics, insomnia, and working conditions of drivers individually on inattention-related error as well as expression of anger in driving. Nevertheless, so far no study has tested the concurrent effect of these factors on crashes. This study has dealt with indirect investigation of the effect of variables including demographic characteristics, insomnia, and working conditions of drivers on inattention-related error and expression of anger in driving (as mediation model). Next, the effect of these two variables on the probability of incidence of road crashes has been assessed among truck drivers. For this... 

The biological identity of nanoparticles (NPs) is established by their interactions with a wide range of biomolecules around their surfaces after exposure to biological media. Understanding the true nature of the biomolecular corona (BC) in its native state is, therefore, essential for its safe and efficient application in clinical settings. The fundamental challenge is to visualize the biomolecules within the corona and their relationship/association to the surface of the NPs. Using a synergistic application of cryo-electron microscopy, cryo-electron tomography, and three-dimensional reconstruction, we revealed the unique morphological details of the biomolecules and their... 

Mixed-criticality embedded systems, as the next-generation of safety-critical systems, are increasingly employed in the industry due to consolidating functionalities with varying criticality levels onto the same computing platform. Technology scaling, battery-supplied design, and heavy computation in mixed-criticality systems necessitate employing energy management techniques. Due to the degrading effects of these techniques on the system's reliability, minimizing energy consumption and meeting tasks’ timing constraints without sacrificing the reliability requirement is a vital challenge in designing mixed-criticality systems. In this paper, we propose REALISM; a novel Reliability- and... 

The ultimate goal of new food packaging technologies, in addition to maintaining the quality and safety of food for the consumer, is to consider environmental concerns and reduce its impacts. In this regard, one of the solutions is to use eco-friendly biopolymers instead of conventional petroleum-based polymers. However, the challenges of using biopolymers in the food packaging industry should be carefully evaluated, and techniques to eliminate or minimize their disadvantages should be investigated. Many studies have been conducted to improve the properties of biopolymer-based packaging materials to produce a favorable product for the food industry. This article reviews the structure of... 

Effective marketing is quite vital in many building construction projects that depend on the pre-sale cash in-flow. However, the unsafe condition of the under-construction projects postpones in-person customer visits to the completion date and complicates the marketing process. This safety concern is especially critical for the upper floor units. Although virtual tours of the buildings are used to show the project specifications, they do not convey the impression that customers receive in the real ambiance of in-person visits. This research proposes a novel method called semi-augmented reality to address the safety issue of the under-construction projects during the marketing process. In... 

Nowadays, as technology grows, human life formation changes every second. These changes sometimes create harmful habits and affect our lifestyle, which unfortunately bring various diseases and disorders. ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) & SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder) are common disorders in children. By giving children the right treatment at the younger ages, we can help them overcome their disabilities and not face any symptoms in their adulthood. The multi-sensory balance board is designed and developed to help medics diagnose the disorders in patients at early stages and monitor the treatment progress. The balance board uses multiple sensors to detect common human... 

One of the most effective measures for building energy conservation is the implementation of energy codes. The building energy codes introduction in Iran started two decades after the first oil crisis in the early 1970s by establishing the building energy conservation regulation called Issue 19. Nowadays, due to some financial and executive barriers, the implementation of Issue 19 is faced with some difficulties. The most critical obstacle is the low price of energy carriers, which lead to high subsidies of energy and the reluctance of the building owners to implement the regulation. The main goal of this paper is the introduction of an innovative financial and executive mechanism for... 

Collapsible-dispersive soil is one of the most challenging types of problematic soils having the adverse effects of both collapsible and dispersive soils for construction. A natural occurrence of this type of soil was recently encountered along some part of the Chabahar-Zahedan railway line in Southeast of Iran. Indeed, the construction phase was stopped after facing several geotechnical problems along the railway embankment partly constructed such as local and general subsidence, non-uniform settlements of structural elements, etc. Relatively high natural porosity as well as pore water salinity were found responsible for those problems. Therefore, this study aims to conduct a three-phase... 

Background: Autonomous grasping of soft tissues can facilitate the robotic surgery procedures. The previous attempts for implementing auto-grasping have been based on a simplistic representation of the actual surgery maneuvers. Method: A generalized three-zone grasp model was introduced to consider the effect of the pull force angulation on the grasp mode, that is, damage, slip, or safe grasp. Also, an extended auto-grasping algorithm was proposed in which the trigger force is automatically controlled against the pull force magnitude and direction, to achieve a safe and secure grasp. Results: The autonomous grasping experiments against a varying pull force in a phantom study indicated a good... 

A cryogel–based semi–interpenetrating polymer network (Cryo–SIPN) was prepared in which conductive polymers such as polyaniline (PANI) and polypyrrole (PPy) were formed within the super porous network of acrylic acid cryogel. For completion of cryo-polymerization, all the constituent solutions were severely mixed and placed into the plastic straws and kept at -20°C and then the synthesized cyrogels were cut into the 1-cm length and freeze dried after washing with water. The Cryo–SIPN polymeric composite was applied in micro solid phase extraction (µSPE) of some selected antibiotic residues from various samples. The µSPE method combined with a high performance liquid... 

Multicore processors are becoming popular in safety-critical applications. A series of these applications comprises of kernels where inexact computations may produce results within the boundary of sufficient quality though, for which the reliability should stay at the maximum possible level. Intrinsic core-level redundancy in multicore processors can be leveraged to achieve the desired reliability level in form of N-modular redundancy (NMR). While NMR provides a proactive means of reliability for critical systems, it has two main drawbacks: Increase in the area and energy consumption that are both limiting factors in the embedded systems. This paper presents a software-based method to... 

Seismic performance of postmainshock buildings considering seismic mainshock-aftershock sequences are studied. The case studies correspond to three SAC steel MRF buildings of three, nine and twenty stories. The 2-D models are able to capture important properties of deterioration of strength and stiffness. Endurance time method is used to predict the response of structures in different hazard levels. Results are compared with those from of nonlinear incremental dynamic analysis. Maximum dynamic seismic responses of structures are captured during synthetic mainshock-aftershock seismic sequences which are produced by endurance time method. Interactional-conceptual curves for different seismic... 

Excessive loads on the human spine is recognized as a risk factor for back injuries/pain. Various lifting analysis tools such as musculoskeletal models, regression equations and NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) lifting equation (NLE) have been proposed to evaluate and mitigate associated risks during manual material handling activities. Present study aims to compare predicted spinal loads from 5 different lifting analysis tools as well as to critically evaluate the NIOSH recommended weight limit (RWL). Spinal loads were estimated under different symmetric/asymmetric lifting tasks in which hand-load mass at each task was set based on RWL from NLE. Estimated... 

In this study, application of Limit Equilibrium (LE) and Finite Element Model (FEM) analyses have been presented and discussed for support design of a 30-m deep excavation in Tehran. A combination of nailing and strand anchorage with block system were designed and used to support the vertical cut in multiple steps of excavation. In this regard, safety factors have been assessed based on LEM using Mohr-Coulomb model, while deformations were estimated using the Hardening Soil model in an FEM platform. Comparison of the design models and field monitoring of deformations indicate a reasonably well performed engineering approach which can be implemented in similar projects in dense urban areas.... 

One of the most important challenges in target parameters estimation via model-free methods is selection of the most effective input parameters namely features selection (FS). Indeed, irrelevant features can degrade the estimation performance. In the current study, the challenge of choosing among the several plant parameters is tackled by means of the innovative FS algorithm named ranking of features with minimum deviation from the target parameter (RFMD). The selected features accompanied with the stable and the fast learning algorithm of multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network (i.e. Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm) which is a combination of gradient descent and Gauss-newton learning...