Sharif Digital Repository

An extracting medium based on chitosan-polypyrrole (CS-PPy) magnetic nanocomposite was synthesized by chemical polymerization of pyrrole at the presence of chitosan magnetic nanoparticles (CS-MNPs) for micro-solid phase extraction. In this work, magnetic nanoparticles, the modified CS-MNPs and different types of CS-PPy magnetic nanocomposites were synthesized. Extraction efficiency of the CS-PPy magnetic nanocomposite was compared with the CS-MNPs and Fe3O4 nanoparticles for the determination of naproxen in aqueous samples, via quantification by spectrofluorimetry. The scanning electron microscopy images obtained from all the prepared nanocomposites revealed that the CS-PPy magnetic... 

Superhydrophobic materials have attracted many attentions in recent years while their application in sample preparation remained almost intact. In this project, a rough surface of melamine formaldehyde foam was silanized by chemical deposition of trichloromethylsilane to form a highly porous and superhydrophobic material, presumably a suitable medium for extracting non–polar compounds such as benzene and its methyl derivatives. The prepared sorbent was packed in a needle for the headspace needle–trap microextraction of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes (BTEX). Major parameters associated with the extraction/desorption processes were considered for optimization. Under the optimized... 

A thin film microextraction method using elecrospun magnetic polybutylene terephthalate nanofibers is developed and implemented to isolate some selected triazines. Due to the high mechanical stability of these nanofibers, they are repeatedly used under harsh magnetic stirring and ultrasonic conditions without any damage and structure degradation. The presence of magnetic nanoparticles within the nanofiber structure increases the extraction efficiency while the fibers could be collected by an external magnet. The synthesized nanocomposite showed strong affinity toward the selected analytes. Apart from the concentration of magnetic nanoparticles within the nanocomposite network, the effect of... 

A superhydrophobic extractive phase was prepared and packed in a needle trap microextraction device for extraction of volatile organic compounds, followed by their determination by gas chromatography. The superhydrophobic phase was prepared by surface modification of melamine formaldehyde (MF) sponge embedded by reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The overall properties of the modified MF along with its high sorption capacity and low cost fabrication were indicative of its feasibility to be highly suitable for extraction of organic pollutants. The determined water contact angle (>150o) from the surface of melamine formaldehyde–reduced graphene oxide (MF–rGO) revealed its high affinity toward... 

In this research, an attempt was made toward synthesizing a sol–gel–based silica aerogel and its subsequent coating on a copper wire by phase separation of polystyrene. Adaption of this new approach enabled us to coat the metallic wire with powder materials. The use of this method for coating, led to the formation of a porous and thick structure of silica aerogel. The coated wire was placed in a needle and used as the sorbent for in–tube solid phase microextraction of chlorobenzenes (CBs). The superhydrophobicity of sorbent on extraction efficiency was investigated by using different ratios of tetraethylorthosilicate/methyltrimethoxysilane. The surface coated with the prepared silica aerogel... 

The authors have synthesized a superhydrophobic silica aerogel by using a sol-gel technique. The material is shown to be an efficient sorbent for needle trap microextraction of chlorobenzenes. Hydrophobicity affects the performance of the sorbent as shown by altering the ratio between tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) and methyltrimethoxysilane when synthesizing the sorbent. The observed contact angle (which is >150°) underpins the superhydrophobic properties of the aerogel. The microstructure of the sorbent was investigated by BET adsorption, revealing a surface area above 1000 m2 g−1. The sorbent was applied to needle trap extraction of chlorobenzenes from aqueous samples, and their... 

In this research, a new approach for extraction and determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from sea and rain water samples was developed by implementing a superhydrophobic substrate and consuming the least amount of solvent. This version of solvent–supported microextraction enabled us to perform the procedure in the immersion mode with the slightest troubles arising from water leakage into the gas chromatography. The superhydrophobic property leads to the fixation of extracting solvent on the substrate surface during water sampling. To prepare a superhydrophobic substrate, a piece of melamine foam was coated by tannic acid and silica nanoparticles using methyltrimethoxysilane and... 

A mathematical time-dependent and isothermal model based on the grain model has been developed to simulate the kinetic and thermal behaviors of a porous iron oxide pellet undergoing chemical reactions with a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and water vapor. Its novelty consists in fact that it can deal with a multi-species reducing gas and oxide pellet. In spite of previous models in which the pure reductant was applied as reducing gas, this model can indicate an actual view of pellet reduction including the effects of reducing gas utility and reducing gas ratio. A finite volume fully implicit technique was applied for solving the governing equations. The model has been... 

Purpose: Treatment of metastatic breast cancer patients is challenging and remains a major underlying cause of female mortality. Understanding molecular alterations in tumor development is critical to identify novel biomarkers and targets for cancer diagnosis and therapy. One of the aberrant cancer expressions gaining recent research interest is glypican-1. Several studies reported strong glypican-1 expression in various types of human cancers. However, none of these investigated glypican-1 expression in a large cohort of breast cancer histopathological subtypes. Patients and Methods: Immunohistochemistry was used to assess glypican-1 expression in 220 breast cancer patients and its relation... 

Rockfall is a significant hazard to sites that are located at the foot of rock slopes. In such sites, there is a notable need to evaluate the potential for rockfall, estimate the extent of areas at risk, and design retaining structures to reduce the risk of rockfall-induced. This paper presents a probabilistic framework for predicting the formation and progression of rockfalls and for evaluating the performance of retaining walls under rockfalls. To this end, first a probabilistic model for the rock projectile motion on a slope is presented. The model accounts for prevailing uncertainties, i.e., the trigger points, rock shape, projectile path, and slope material properties, which include... 

In this paper a new passive imaging method is introduced that is mainly suitable for Geo-locating LPI radars. The method uses two Electronic Support (ES) receivers located on a fast moving platform (e.g. an airplane or a satellite). The proposed method has a high processing gain which makes it absolutely suitable against very weak LPI signals. It is also capable in radar location finding against complex radars and complicated electromagnetic environment  

The unusual surface states of topological semimetals have attracted a lot of attention. Recently, we showed [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 113, 8648 (2016)PNASA60027-842410.1073/pnas.1524787113] that for a Dirac semimetal (DSM) arising from band inversion, such as Na3Bi and Cd3As2, the expected double Fermi arcs on the surface are not topologically protected. Quite generally, the arcs deform into states similar to those on the surface of a strong topological insulator. Here we address two questions related to deformation and stability of surface states in DSMs. First, we discuss why certain perturbations, no matter how large, are unable to destroy the double Fermi arcs. We show that this is... 

In this paper the structure of Maximum Likelihood (ML) CFAR for lognormal clutter is derived assuming that some reference samples are censored to avoid destructive effect of interfering targets. It is shown that under some acceptable approximations we will achieve in a simple structure for this detector which is suitable for real time processing. The proposed detector is compared with non censored ML CFAR (i.e. logt CFAR) via simulation. It is shown that while the proposed detector is a little weaker than logt CFAR in homogeneous clutter, in non homogeneous clutter it outperforms the logt CFAR  

CFAR detector is an essential component in any radar system. This component ensures that the system may not be overloaded by false targets. In the past it was common to model the interfering signal (clutter) in a radar system with a Rayleigh distribution. But as a progress in the radar systems, nowadays the Rayleigh model is insufficient, therefore some other models such as Weibull and lognormal are proposed and CFAR detectors for these models are developed through the papers. But majority of these proposed CFAR detectors are derived for single pulse operation. When more than one pulse exists, it is proposed to use binary integrator to improve the performance. It is mentioned through... 

The paper introduced a new design for two-frequency MTI radar is introduced. The suggested system can change its frequencies, in each pulse. Therefore, the system is very resistive to electronic war. The analytical results of our calculation show that the system has very high blind speed and in realistic situations, it increases signal to noise ratio, although it widens clutter bandwidth and detects some spurious targets  

The main focus of this paper is on the estimation of target motion parameters using bearing measurements. Here, based on a linearization of measurements, a recursive least squares (RLS) solution is developed. The performance of the proposed method is compared to PLE which uses the same approach in measurement linearization. Simulation results show the excellence of the proposed method over the PLE, and RLS results are in vicinity of the CRLB  

For the production of synthesis gas utilised in Midrex direct reduction plants, catalytic steam/CO2 hydrocarbon reforming in tubular reformer is the major process. Owing to the high heat input through the Midrex reformer tube wall, the endothermic nature of reforming reactions, low mass velocity of feed gas and large tube diameter, the catalyst bed is exposed to considerable axial and radial temperature gradients. These radial concentration and temperature gradients may create local areas with potential for carbon formation. To investigate this phenomenon, a rigorous two-dimensional model is developed for simulating the operation of a Midrex reformer which applies a dual catalyst loading...