Sharif Digital Repository

In this article, two adaptive model predictive controllers (AMPC) are applied to regulate the blood glucose in type 1 diabetic patients. The first controller is constructed based on a linear model, while the second one is designed by using a nonlinear Hammerstein model. The adaptive version of these control schemes is considered to make them more robust against model mismatches and external disturbances. The least squares method with forgetting factor is used to update the model parameters. For simulation study, two well-known mathematical models namely, Puckett and Hovorka which describe the dynamical behavior of patient's body have been selected. The performances and robustness of the... 

In this study, the local composition based models such as the Wilson, the nonrandom two-liquid (NRTL), and the Wilson-NRF have been applied in correlation and estimation of density, viscosity, and surface tension of biodiesels. The thermodynamic models have been used in correlating the thermophysical properties for 215 experimental data points. These models have the interaction energy between each pair that is considered as adjustable parameters. To decrease the number of these adjustable parameters, it is assumed that the biodiesels are composed of two hypothetical components. The average absolute deviation (AADs) of the correlated density of biodiesels for the Wilson, the NRTL, and the... 

In this research, direct conversion of wet algal biomass into biodiesel using supercritical methanol was studied. In this process, microalgal lipids simultaneously was extracted and converted to biodiesel under high pressure and temperature conditions without using any catalyst. Several experiments have been performed to optimize the methanol amount and it has been revealed that the best performance was achieved by using methanol/wet biomass ratio of 8:1. The effect of using various co-solvents in increasing the efficiency of the supercritical process was investigated. It has been shown that hexane was the most effective co-solvent and its optimal ratio respect to wet biomass was 6:1. The... 

The extraction and purification of lipids from the microalgae Chlorella vulgaris have been investigated. First, a mixture of hexane and ethanol was used to extract lipids from the algal biomass. Ultrasonication was employed to disrupt the cell wall and increase the extraction performance. Under these conditions, over 90% of the fatty acids in the biomass were extracted. Second, a biphasic system was formed by adding water and hexane to the extracted crude oil. In this way, fatty acids were mainly distributed in the organic phase (mostly hexane and ethanol) while most of the contaminants remained in the aqueous phase (mostly water and ethanol). Equilibrium distribution data between the phases... 

In this research, a two-stage process consisting of cultivation in nutrient rich and nitrogen starvation conditions was employed to enhance lipid production in Chlorella vulgaris algal biomass. The effect of supplying different organic and inorganic carbon sources on cultivation behavior was investigated. During nutrient sufficient condition (stage I), the highest biomass productivity of 0.158. ±. 0.011. g/L/d was achieved by using sodium bicarbonate followed by 0.130. ±. 0.013, 0.111. ±. 0.005 and 0.098. ±. 0.003. g/L/d for sodium acetate, carbon dioxide and molasses, respectively. Cultivation under nitrogen starvation process (stage II) indicated that the lipid and fatty acid content... 

In this study, the liquid-liquid phase behavior of aromatic compound. +. aliphatic compound. +. ionic liquid (IL) ternary systems was estimated by using two artificial neural networks (ANN) developed based on back propagation (BP) and hybrid group method of data handling (GMDH). Molar ratio of aliphatic compound, aromatic compound, and IL as well as temperature, molecular weight ratio of aliphatic compound to IL, and molecular weight ratio of aromatic compound to IL were chosen as the inputs to the networks. Additionally, the mole fraction of components in final alkane-rich phase and IL-rich phase was considered as desired outputs. The best topology of the BP-ANN model was found as (6-8-4).... 

To overcome the drawback of poor solar light utilization brought about by the narrow photoresponse range of TiO2, a silver and sulfur co-doped TiO2 was synthesized. Using the prepared catalyst, solar photocatalytic degradation of 2-nitrophenol (2-NP) by a TiO2-based catalyst was studied for the first time. Effects of the co-doping on the structural, optical and morphological properties of the synthesized nanoparticles were investigated by different characterization methods: X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption-desorption measurements, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and Fourier... 

This study aims to identify underlying fundamental factors behind high-tech exports by the established and emerging countries, separately. The author also examines whether the two export patterns converge over time. Based on the gravity approach, a generalized method of moments panel estimator is applied to rigorously address the endogeneity problem in both static and dynamic versions of the model. In addition, the nonstationary and cointegrating features of variables are discussed. The author finds that high-tech exports from the emerging countries are mainly based on foreign direct investment inflows and participation in the international production chain, as well as a high degree of... 

An analytic expression for energy and angular dependence of a secondary charged lepton in the decay of a polarized top quark with anomalous tWb couplings in the presence of all anomalous couplings are derived. The angular distribution of the b-quark is derived as well. It is presented that the charged lepton spin correlation coefficient is not very sensitive to the anomalous couplings. However, the b-quark spin correlation coefficient is sensitive to anomalous couplings and could be used as a powerful tool in the search for non-SM coupling. © 2007 IOP Publishing Ltd  

In this paper we study the noncommutative effects to the lepton spectrum from the decay of a polarized top quark. It is shown that the lowest contribution comes from the quadratic terms of the noncommutative parameter. The deviations from the standard model are significant for small values of the noncommutative characteristic scale. However, the charged lepton spin correlation coefficient has a remarkable deviation from the standard model from very low values of the noncommutative characteristic scale to 1 TeV. © 2006 The American Physical Society  

The general goal of the facility layout problem is to arrange a given number of facilities to minimize the total cost associated with the known or projected interactions between them. One of the special classes of the facility layout problem is the Single Row Facility Layout Problem (SRFLP), which consists of finding an optimal linear placement of rectangular facilities with varying dimensions on a straight line. This paper first presents and proves a theorem to find the optimal solution of a special case of SRFLP. The results obtained by this theorem prove to be very useful in reducing the computational efforts when a new algorithm based on tabu search for the SRFLP is proposed in this... 

In this paper, we have discussed the results of sensitivity analysis in a payoff matrix of the Matching Pennies game. After representing the game as a LP model, the sensitivity analysis of the elements of the payoff matrix is presented. The game value and the optimal strategies for different values of parameters are determined and compared  

Effects of initiator and surfactant concentrations and temperature on styrene conversion and polymer particle size distribution (PSD) in a batch emulsion polymerization are investigated through simulation and experimental studies. The detailed model based on population balance (zero-one model), accounting for nucleation, growth and coagulation phenomena has been used for prediction of particle size distribution. In checking the effect of initiator concentration on final PSD, it was noticed that when critical micelle concentration (CMC) is kept constant, the model cannot predict PSD very well. Thus, a correlation for calculating critical micelle concentration has been proposed and... 

In the past 10 years Iran has been emerging as a major car producer in the world. However, due to delays in economic reforms, Iranian car exports have not increased as much as production. This paper presents a first estimation of the Iranian export potential in the car industry. Based on new theoretical developments of the gravity equation, an empirical bilateral trade model is proposed. It includes sectoral variables (car production, import tariffs), as well as other original variables, such as expectations and hysteresis. We then develop a dataset which includes the 40 major car-exporting countries in the world, 34 importing countries, a 10-year time period as well as four car production... 

In this work, a new control strategy for controlling the particle size distribution (PSD) in emulsion polymerization has been proposed. It is shown that the desired PSD can be achieved by controlling the free surfactant concentration which in turn can be done by manipulating the surfactant feed rate. Simulation results show that the closed-loop control of free surfactant concentration results in a better control of PSD compared to open-loop control strategy, in presence of model mismatch and disturbances. Since the on-line measuring of ionic free surfactant concentration is difficult, conductivity which is related to it is measured instead and used for control purposes. The closed-loop... 

One of the main issues in colour image processing is changing objects' colour due to colour of illumination source. Colour constancy methods tend to modify overall image colour as if it was captured under natural light illumination. Without colour constancy, the colour would be an unreliable cue to object identity. Till now, many methods in colour constancy domain are presented. They are in two categories; statistical methods and learning-based methods. This paper presents a new statistical weighted algorithm for illuminant estimation. Weights are adjusted to highlight two key factors in the image for illuminant estimation, that is contrast and brightness. The focus was on the convex part of... 

One of the main issues in colour image processing is changing objects' colour due to colour of illumination source. Colour constancy methods tend to modify overall image colour as if it was captured under natural light illumination. Without colour constancy, the colour would be an unreliable cue to object identity. Till now, many methods in colour constancy domain are presented. They are in two categories; statistical methods and learning-based methods. This paper presents a new statistical weighted algorithm for illuminant estimation. Weights are adjusted to highlight two key factors in the image for illuminant estimation, that is contrast and brightness. The focus was on the convex part of... 

Particle size distribution determines the major end-use properties of latex produced by emulsion. Therefore simulation and control of particle size distribution are important in emulsion polymerization. The investigated system is styrene polymerization. The model for determination of particle size distribution is based on population balance, accounting for nucleation and growth phenomena. The population balance equation (PBE) is discretized respect to particle radius. The ordinary differential equations obtained from discretization of PBE, initiator and monomers mass balances and algebraic thermodynamic equations are solved simultaneously via MATLAB programme. The accuracy of the model has...