Sharif Digital Repository

The current study was designed to assess the association between temporal variations in urban PM2.5 chemical composition, sources, and the oxidative stress and inflammatory response in an alveolar macrophage (AM) model. A year-long sampling campaign collected PM2.5 samples at the Sharif University in Tehran, Iran. PM-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production was measured both with an acellular dithiothreitol consumption assay (DTT-ROS; ranged from 2.1 to 9.3 nmoles min−1 m−3) and an in vitro macrophage-mediated ROS production assay (AM-ROS; ranged from 125 to 1213 μg Zymosan equivalents m−3). The production of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α; ranged from ~60 to 518 pg TNF-α m−3)... 

Permeability reduction in porous media as a result of frail and tenuous fine particles migration would decrease the productivity index in the subterranean reservoirs. During reservoir stimulation by injecting fluids into the reservoir, as the salinity condition of the formation brine changes, fine particles initiate the triggering process. In this study, MgO-based nanofluid as a fines fixation agent was stably prepared based on the particle size distribution and characterized through transmission electron microscopy analysis. Afterward, several core flooding tests were performed using Berea sandstone cores to study the effect of nanofluid injection on fines fixation in the water shock... 

Background: cervical cancer is one of the most common malignancies in women worldwide and its management remains challenging and complex. As Cytochrome4Z1 (CYP4Z1) is overex-pressed in many tumours, its expression in cervical cancer is unknown. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate CYP4Z1 expression in cervical cancers. Methods: CYP4Z1 expression was immunohistochemically assessed in 100 cases of cervical cancers along with ten normal cervix tissues, and the enzyme’s relationship to several clinicopathological features and survival was explored. Results: CYP4Z1 was strongly expressed in 55% of cervical cancer patients. Normal cervix samples were negative for CYP4Z1 expression.... 

It is not common to build a geomechanical model for depleted reservoirs as logging and coring are costly and time consuming in such reservoirs. On the other hand, in regular analysis of wellbore stability, the effect of time is completely ignored. As a result, with time there will be some errors in the evaluation of wellbore stability in depleted reservoirs. In order to determine the optimum wellbore trajectory during the reservoir life, it is necessary to have a model which can estimate the rock properties based on the first full logging suite and also consider the depletion effect. In this study, a novel model is proposed which combines a mechanical earth model, borehole circumferential... 

Purpose: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is characterized by high mortality rate, and its clinical management is difficult and complex. Therefore, there is a need for extensive efforts aimed at accelerating the discovery of novel therapies for TNBC. CYP4Z1 has been implicated in the development of breast cancer. The current study aimed at characterizing the expression of CYP4Z1 on TNBC. Materials and Methods: Using immunohistochemistry, CYP4Z1 expression was evaluated on 122 TNBC samples, four samples of breast cancers expressing ER, PR, and HER-2, and four samples of normal breast tissues. The association between the enzyme and various histopathological features and survival of... 

In budding yeast, the 3′ end processing of mRNA and the coupled termination of transcription by RNAPII requires the CF IA complex. We have earlier demonstrated a role for the Clp1 subunit of this complex in termination and promoter-associated transcription of CHA1. To assess the generality of the observed function of Clp1 in transcription, we tested the effect of Clp1 on transcription on a genomewide scale using the Global Run-On-Seq (GRO-Seq) approach. GRO-Seq analysis showed the polymerase reading through the termination signal in the downstream region of highly transcribed genes in a temperature-sensitive mutant of Clp1 at elevated temperature. No such terminator readthrough was observed... 

Network Survivability is defined as the ability of a network to support the committed Quality of Services (QoS) continuously in the presence of different failure scenarios. Both availability and performance degradation of a system in presence of failure are integral components of survivability evaluation. Therefore, a composite model is presented for network survivability that includes system availability analysis to find out the cost due to system downtime, and system failure impact analysis to find out the transient performance degradation when failure occurs. A new analytical technique is presented to evaluate the excess loss due to failure (ELF) as the transient performance degradation... 

Alkalis, surfactants and/or polymers are usually injected in the injector wells so that the injection fluids can sweep through the reservoir and mobilize/recover more oil. However, the formation of stable emulsion due to the residual chemicals in the recovered crude oil poses problems in the primary separation process. This study focuses on the effect of Alkali-Surfactant-Polymer injection on creaming and coalescence of crude oil and water emulsion produced in the primary gravity separator. In addition, a model is developed in this work to predict the separation effectiveness of oil and water emulsion containing ASP. In this work, the effect of ASP on the stability and the separation of... 

Alkalis, surfactants and/or polymers are usually injected in the injector wells so that the injection fluids can sweep through the reservoir and mobilize/recover more oil. However, the formation of stable emulsion due to the residual chemicals in the recovered crude oil poses problems in the primary separation process. This study focuses on the effect of Alkali-Surfactant-Polymer injection on creaming and coalescence of crude oil and water emulsion produced in the primary gravity separator. In addition, a model is developed in this work to predict the separation effectiveness of oil and water emulsion containing ASP. In this work, the effect of ASP on the stability and the separation of... 

This paper presents a proactive operation scheme for improving distribution system resiliency against natural hazards, specifically windstorms. In this context, important attributes associated with the windstorm consisting the distance from the windstorm route, the wind speed, the distance from tall trees and buildings, and cable type are used in a deep neural network (DNN) engine to identify the vulnerable branches and predict their failure during the windstorm. The DNN predictive model is integrated in the proposed scheme. Afterwards, a power flow-based optimization engine is employed to proactively enhance the grid resiliency. Grid resiliency is measured by the inevitable action of load... 

In this study, 490 nm thin tin selenide thin films were deposited by facile co-evaporation techniques using Sn and Se sources on a clean glass substrate. The thin films were annealed at moderate annealing temperature followed by characterization and analysis. The thin annealed films possess polycrystalline nature and orthorhombic structure with an average grain size of 130 nm. The band gap assessed from absorption spectra for the highly annealed sample was 1.52 eV. The resistivity and sheet resistance were measured with four-probe techniques and the sheet resistance was =1.362 × 104 ohm for the highly annealed film. © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd  

In this study, 490 nm thin tin selenide thin films were deposited by facile co-evaporation techniques using Sn and Se sources on a clean glass substrate. The thin films were annealed at moderate annealing temperature followed by characterization and analysis. The thin annealed films possess polycrystalline nature and orthorhombic structure with an average grain size of 130 nm. The band gap assessed from absorption spectra for the highly annealed sample was 1.52 eV. The resistivity and sheet resistance were measured with four-probe techniques and the sheet resistance was =1.362 × 104 ohm for the highly annealed film. © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd  

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEM-FC) aggregation pressure causes extensive strains in cell segments. The compression of each segment takes place through the cell modeling method. In addition, a very heterogeneous compressive load is produced because of the recurrent channel rib design of the dipole plates, so that while high strains are provided below the rib, the domain continues in its initial uncompressed case under the ducts approximate to it. This leads to significant spatial variations in thermal and electrical connections and contact resistances (both in rib–GDL and membrane–GDL interfaces). Variations in heat, charge, and mass transfer rates within the GDL can affect the... 

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEM-FC) aggregation pressure causes extensive strains in cell segments. The compression of each segment takes place through the cell modeling method. In addition, a very heterogeneous compressive load is produced because of the recurrent channel rib design of the dipole plates, so that while high strains are provided below the rib, the domain continues in its initial uncompressed case under the ducts approximate to it. This leads to significant spatial variations in thermal and electrical connections and contact resistances (both in rib–GDL and membrane–GDL interfaces). Variations in heat, charge, and mass transfer rates within the GDL can affect the... 

Purpose: Colon cancer is a leading cause of mortality worldwide. It has a relatively poor prognosis; therefore, new therapies are needed. One of the tumour-related enzymes that has gained considerable interest is CYP4Z1. This enzyme has been expressed in many tumours and has been hypothesized as a potential biomarker or target for novel anticancer therapies. Patients and Methods: CYP4Z1 overexpression was immunohistochemically examined in a large panel of colon tissue types including normal, benign, primary and metastatic ones, and the enzyme’s relation to histopathological features and patient survival was evaluated. Results: A high CYP4Z1 expression was observed in benign, primary and... 

Purpose: To evaluate the phytochemical profile of methanol extract of Ephedra foeminea and assess its anti-carcer effect on a large set of normal and cancerous cell lines Methods: Extraction of air-dried powder of aerial parts of E. foeminea was carried out with methanol. The bioactive compounds in the extract were determined using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The anti-cancer effect of the extract was determined by 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay against various types of normal and cancer cell lines. Serial concentrations of plant extract were used, ranging from 7.812 to1000 μg/mL. Doxorubicin (DOX) served as standard drug. The... 

Multi-Facility Weber Problem (MFWP), also known as continuous location–allocation problem, entails determining the locations of a predefined number of facilities in a planar space and their related customer allocations. In this paper, we focus on a new variant of the problem known as Single-Source Capacitated MFWP (SSCMFWP). To tackle the problem efficiently and effectively, an iterative two-phase heuristic algorithm is put forward. At the phase I, we aim to determine proper locations for facilities, and during the phase II, assignment of customers to these facilities is pursued. As an alternative solution method, a simulated annealing (SA) algorithm is also proposed for carrying out the... 

In drilling oil wells a system of complex fluids and chemical additives is used. Losses of these fluids in the well during drilling or disposal of them in well site could transfer pollutants to groundwater. In the present study a number of well sites, located in South of Iran, were studied to indicate types and magnitude of various pollutant materials that remain in the environment undestroyed and have considerable impacts on the underground water resources. Hydrocarbons used in Oil Base Muds (OBM) that can't be biodegrade readily in nature found to be the most severe pollutant material caused by disposal of Drilling Mud and Cuttings. Volume of drilling waste for these oil wells evaluated to... 

The current research was conducted to extract the bioactive compounds from citrus waste and assess their role in the development of functional foods to treat different disorders. The scientific name of citrus is Citrus L. and it belongs to the Rutaceae family. It is one of the most important fruit crops that is grown throughout the world. During processing, a large amount of waste is produced from citrus fruits in the form of peel, seeds, and pomace. Every year, the citrus processing industry creates a large amount of waste. The citrus waste is composed of highly bioactive substances and phytochemicals, including essential oils (EOs), ascorbic acid, sugars, carotenoids, flavonoids, dietary... 

Background: The development of colon cancer has been described as a multistep process of carcinogenesis. Understanding molecular and cellular changes underlying this process is required to determine potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets in colon cancers. Several molecular entities, including glypicans, are implicated in cancer development. Among these is glypican-6, which is overexpressed in a limited number of cancers. This study aims to characterise the glypican-6 expression in different types of colon cancer. Methods: Immunohistochemistry was used to characterise glypican-6 expression in a panel of archived formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded colon tissue types. These types included...