Sharif Digital Repository

In this paper, the neutron noise based on transport theory and diffusion noise theory using Green's function technique is calculated. As the neutron noise is used for core diagnostic, surveillance and monitoring, calculation of neutron noise precisely can play an important role in monitoring and safety. We compare the accuracy of Green's function based on transport and diffusion theory in order to survey the differences between these theories. In this study some deviation between results obtained two theories are observed, and the impact of dimensions, cross sections and frequency on the results investigated. © 2017  

The telegrapher's theory was used to develop a new formulation for the neutron noise equation. Telegrapher's equation is supposed to demonstrate a more realistic approximation for neutron transport phenomena, especially in comparison to the diffusion theory. The physics behind such equation implies that the signal propagation speed is finite, instead of the infinite as in the case of ordinary diffusion. This paper presents the theory and results of the development of a new method for calculation of the neutron noise using the telegrapher's equation as its basis. In order to investigate the differences and strengths of the new method against the diffusion based neutron noise, a comparison was... 

In an attempt to explore the significance of transport theory in neutron noise, localization of a noise source by Green's function based on transport theory is investigated. There are considerable differences between Green's functions based on diffusion and transport, such as small dimensions, near edges, high heterogeneity medium and high-frequency source of perturbation. These differences are expected to significantly impact unfolding, reconstruction, and identification of the neutron noise source. Improvement in noise source unfolding methods is essential in terms of safety aspects and reactor performance enhancement. Since gaining the ability to monitor nuclear reactor based on noise... 

Hexyltriphenylphosphonium bromide (HTPB) is used as an efficient ionic liquid catalyst in the chemoselective addition of malononitrile to carbonyl group moiety of chalcones through the three-component reaction of aryl aldehydes, acetophenone derivatves, and malononitrile to produce (E)-2-(1,3-diarylallylidene)malononitriles at ambient temperature. The method is simple, solvent-free, environmentally friendly, and gives excellent yields in a short reaction times. © 2019 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim  

10Ce-TZP/Al2O3 nanoparticles as reinforcement can be a good substitute in aluminum matrix composites prepared through powder metallurgy. In this work, the effects of sintering temperature on the hardness, friction, and wear characteristics of Al-10Ce-TZP/Al2O3 composites have been investigated. Ce-TZP/Al2O3 nanocomposites were synthesized by the aqueous combustion method. About 7 wt% 10Ce-TZP/Al2O3-aluminum composites in the form of cylindrical samples were prepared at the sintering temperatures of 400°C, 450°C, and 500°C under an applied pressure of 600 MPa for 60 min. The experimental results show that the distribution of Ce-TZP/Al2O3 nanocomposite into the metal matrix is homogenous and... 

Embedded Systems (ESs) have migrated from special-purpose hardware to commodity hardware. These systems have also tended to Mixed-Criticality (MC) implementations, executing applications of different criticalities upon a shared platform. Multi-cores, which are commonly used to design MC Systems (MCSs), bring out new challenges due to the Process Variation (PV). Power and frequency asymmetry affects the predictability of ESs. In this work, variation-aware techniques are explored to not only improve the reliability of MCSs, but also aid the scheduling and energy saving of them. We leverage the Core-to-Core (C2C) variations to protect high-criticality tasks and provide full service for a high... 

This study was aimed at evaluating the effects of alkali activator solution and utilization of silica fume (SF) on durability and microstructural characteristics of alkali-activated ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) pastes. The pastes were activated with sodium silicate (SS) blended with NaOH (SH) solution with molar concentrations of 8 M, 12 M, and 16 M and SS:SH ratios of 1.0, 2.5, and 4.0. The same mixes were prepared with SF as partial replacement of GGBFS at a dosage of 10% by weight. The initial and final water absorption as well as the electrical resistivity of the specimens were measured. The optimal paste fabricated with 12 M NaOH solution and SS:SH ratio of 2.5 showed... 

This study investigated the effects of combined utilization of wollastonite particles and recycled waste ceramic aggregate (RWCA) on high strength concrete (HSC) properties. Two groups of mixtures were manufactured: 1) concrete mixtures in which cement was partially replaced with wollastonite at values ranging from 10% to 50%, and 2) mixtures in which wollastonite was used at the aforementioned dosages and 50% of natural coarse aggregate was replaced with RWCA. In addition, 10% of cement weight micro-silica was added to all mixtures. The concrete behavior in terms of strength, durability, resistance against acidic environment, and performance under elevated temperatures ranging from 20 °C to... 

The authors regret that there was a minor error in the chemical composition of cement and micro-silica presented in Table 2 of the previously print version of the article. The authors have re-analyzed the materials for more accuracy of the presented information. Please refer to the corrected table as presented here. It is noteworthy that this change does not affect any of the conclusions. The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd  

Embedded systems have migrated from special-purpose hardware to commodity hardware. These systems have also tended to Mixed-Criticality (MC) implementations, executing applications of different criticalities upon a shared platform. Multi-core processors, which are commonly used to design MC systems, bring out new challenges due to the process variations. Power and frequency asymmetry affects the predictability of embedded systems. In this work, variation-aware techniques are explored to not only improve the reliability of MC systems, but also aid the scheduling and energy saving of them. We leverage the core-to-core (C2C) variations to protect high-criticality tasks and provide full service... 

The authors regret that there was a minor error in the chemical composition of cement and micro-silica presented in Table 2 of the previously print version of the article. The authors have re-analyzed the materials for more accuracy of the presented information. Please refer to the corrected table as presented here. It is noteworthy that this change does not affect any of the conclusions. The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd  

This study presents the results of an experimental evaluation of the performance of high strength concrete (HSC)with basic oxygen steel-making (BOS)slag and nano-silica respectively used as a partial replacement of sand and cement. The properties of fresh and hardened concrete specimens containing 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% BOS as partial replacement of sand and 2% of cement replaced with nano-silica were evaluated. According to the results, concrete samples containing nano-silica with higher BOS percentages, demonstrated improvements in strength and durability properties, while workability was reduced. For example, at 50% BOS content, about 18% increase in compressive strength and 50%... 

Solid state 13C and 15N chemical shifts of uracil and imidazole have been calculated using a 2-layer ONIOM approach at 32 levels of theory. The effect of electron correlation between two layers has been investigated by choosing two different kinds of layer selection. Factorial design has been applied as a multivariate technique to analyze the effect of wave function and layer selection on solid state 13C and 15N chemical shifts calculations. PBEPBE/6-311+G(d,p) was recommended as an optimally selected level of theory for high layer in both models. It is illustrated that considering the electron correlation of two layers of ONIOM models is important factor to calculate solid state 15N... 

This study is aimed at optimizing the rice husk ash (RHA) content and bacterial concentration in self-compacting concrete (SCC). For this purpose, cement was partially replaced with RHA at 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, and 30% by weight of cement. In addition, micro-silica (MS) was added to all mixes at a dosage of 10% by weight of cementitious materials. The mix with the optimum RHA content was supplied with bacterial cells with concentrations of 103, 105, and 107 cells/ml to reduce the formation of micro-cracks. The RHA concretes showed reduced workability with increasing RHA content. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses were performed on... 

The authors regret that there is an error with the caption of Figure 10 in the article. The magnification of the SEM image shown in Figure 10(b) is 100×. Furthermore, Ameri et al. [1] is the original source of the image. The correct caption is as follows: Fig. 10. Morphology of pumice aggregate: (a) 30× magnification, (b) 100× magnification [1]. The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused. [1] F. Ameri, P. Shoaei, S.A. Zareei, B. Behforouz, Geopolymers vs. alkali-activated materials (AAMs): A comparative study on durability, microstructure, and resistance to elevated temperatures of lightweight mortars, Constr. Build. Mater. 222 (2019) 49–63.... 

The authors regret that there were minor errors in the labels of the XRD patterns of cement and micro-silica presented in Figs. 1 and 2, which have been corrected in the figures included here. In addition, due to concerns over the reliability of the XRD pattern of pumice shown in Fig. 9, as caused by a low signal count, the authors have re-analyzed the pumice and the updated XRD pattern has been included here. It is worth noting that these changes do not affect any of the conclusions. The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused. © 2021  

This study was aimed at evaluating the effects of alkali activator solution and utilization of silica fume (SF) on durability and microstructural characteristics of alkali-activated ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) pastes. The pastes were activated with sodium silicate (SS) blended with NaOH (SH) solution with molar concentrations of 8 M, 12 M, and 16 M and SS:SH ratios of 1.0, 2.5, and 4.0. The same mixes were prepared with SF as partial replacement of GGBFS at a dosage of 10% by weight. The initial and final water absorption as well as the electrical resistivity of the specimens were measured. The optimal paste fabricated with 12 M NaOH solution and SS:SH ratio of 2.5 showed... 

Point Set Registration (PSR) of anatomic parts is used in different fields such as Patient Specific Implant (PSI) design in Computer Assisted Surgery (CAS) procedure. We designed a modified rigid PSR method based on student's-t mixture model. The proposed method is compared with Coherent Point Drift (CPD) registration method. Higher convergence speed and the lower error value are the advantages of the suggested algorithm in compare with CPD. In our method, the number of iterations decreases by about 69%, and the final error improvement was about 7% in comparison with CPD. The robustness of the proposed algorithm makes it beneficial to be used in the procedure of designing PSI in both... 

Up until now, different methods, including; flow pressure signal, ultrasonic, gamma-ray and combination of them with the neural network approach have been proposed for multiphase flow measurement. More sophisticated techniques such as ultrasonic waves and electricity, as well as high-cost procedures such as gamma waves gradually, can be replaced by simple methods. In this research, only flow parameters such as temperature, viscosity, pressure signals, standard deviation and coefficients of kurtosis and skewness are used as inputs of an artificial neural network to determine the three phase flow rates. The model is validated by the field data which were obtained from separators of two oil... 

Purpose: This study aims to systematically review the economic complexity literature to advance the knowledge on its contribution to building regional competitiveness. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, we did a systematic review of 111 relevant papers. In this regard, we did a thematic analysis on all the collected papers, which led to a two-level processed approach. In the first level, the contributions of the reviewed articles have been classified into three main streams. In the second level, the findings under each contribution category are analyzed and explained. This approach led to a thematic network demonstrating economic complexity and the dynamics of regional...