Sharif Digital Repository

Inter-fuel substitution in the household sector depends on whether their target energy use is similar or not. To account for the effect of end-use application on energy demand, the concept of useful energy is utilized in which energy carriers are grouped according to their end-use applications. Useful energy is assumed as a commodity demanded to satisfy needs. Therefore, it should possess certain characteristics in accordance with the nature of basic needs. These characteristics were investigated through a two-level budgeting system with demographic variables indicating rural and urban households of Iran. The model has been applied to estimate the behavioural parameters such as income and... 

The present paper focuses on medium-term effects of alternative windfall management strategies for a resource abundant country where the resource revenues are expected to last over a prolonged period. In particular, the trade-off between spending and saving is analyzed within the framework of a recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium model. The model is further validated against historical data available for 2001-2010. The total factor productivity is calculated endogenously in the model based on a function that reflects the changes in factor productivity. The results suggest that saving oil revenues, whether in an oil fund or through physical investment in domestic sectors, leads... 

Significant energy subsidies are believed to be the main factor that has resulted in high energy intensities of Iranian industries. The Subsidy Reform Act of 2010 was directed at modifying energy consumption pattern and fostering energy efficiency enhancement. This study aims at analyzing the effect of energy subsidy reform on promoting energy efficiency in six energy intensive industries of Iran. In order to do so, the energy efficiency practices that have not been adopted after the implementation of the first phase of energy subsidy reform are investigated. Data analysis reveals that if financially interesting investments are determined as those with payback periods less than three years,... 

In this paper, we introduce the concept of universal Gröbner basis for a parametric polynomial ideal. In this direction, we present a new algorithm, called UGS, which takes as input a finite set of parametric polynomials and outputs a universal Gröbner system for the ideal generated by input polynomials, by decomposing the space of parameters into a finite set of parametric cells and for each cell associating a finite set of parametric polynomials which is a universal Gröbner basis for the ideal corresponding to that cell. Indeed, for each values of parameters satisfying a condition set, the corresponding polynomial set forms a universal Gröbner basis for the ideal. Our method relies on the... 

Correlations between electrical and thermal conduction in polymer composites are blurred due to the complex contribution of charge and heat carriers at the nanoscale junctions of filler particles. Conflicting reports on the lack or existence of thermal percolation in polymer composites have made it the subject of great controversy for decades. Here, we develop a generalized percolation framework that describes both electrical and thermal conductivity within a remarkably wide range of filler-to-matrix conductivity ratios (Y f / Y m), covering 20 orders of magnitude. Our unified theory provides a genuine classification of electrical conductivity with typical Y f / Y m ≥ 10 10 as... 

Image processing applications employ various filters for several purposes, such as enhancing the images and extracting the features. Recent studies show that filters in image processing applications take a substantial amount of the execution time, and it is crucial to boost their performance to improve the overall performance of the image processing applications. Image processing filters require a significant amount of data sharing among threads which are in charge of filtering neighbor pixels. Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) attempt to satisfy the demand of data sharing by providing the scratch-pad memory, shuffle instructions, and on-chip caches. However, we observe that these mechanisms... 

Understanding the nature of interaction between metal nanoparticles and biomolecules such as amino acids is important in the development and design of biosensors. In this paper, binding of M3 clusters (M = Au, Ag and Cu) with neutral and anionic forms of histidine amino acid was studied using density functional theory (DFT-B3LYP). It was found that the interaction of histidine with M3 clusters is governed by two major bonding factors: (a) the anchoring N-M and O-M bonds and (b) the nonconventional N-H⋯M and O-H⋯M hydrogen bonds. The nature of these chemical bonds has been investigated based on quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) and natural bond orbital (NBO) analyses. In the next... 

The relative stabilities and noncovalent interactions of the six low-lying energy tautomers of cytosine nucleobase with some biological anions (such as F-, Cl-, and CN-) have been investigated in gas phase by density functional theory (DFT) method in conjunction with 6-311++G (d,p) atomic basis set. Furthermore, to systematically investigate all possible tautomerisms from cytosine induced by proton transfer, we describe a study of structural tautomer interconversion in the gas phase and in a continuum solvent using DFT calculation. We carried out geometrical optimizations with the integral equation formalism of polarizable continuum (IEF-PCM) model to account for the solvent effect, and the... 

In this study, the inclusion of multi-walled carbon nanotubes as the second phase in the hydroxyapatite matrix, in order to improve the mechanical strength, has been performed via the sol-gel process. The stability of carbon nanotube sol with the changes of pH and dispersant values (sodium dodecyl sulfate) was evaluated by zeta potential analysis. The results indicated that synthesis of hydroxyapatite particles in the presence of the carbon nanotubes had the best result in homogenization of the carbon nanotube dispersion and faster crystallization of hydroxyapatite. The crystallization of hydroxyapatite phase was investigated with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction... 

In this study, UV‐Vis-NIR photodetectors based on decorated ZnO nanofibers (NFs) with optimized coverage of Au nanoparticles (NPs) fabricated via combined simple electrospinning and sputtering techniques are introduced. The effect of different coverages of Au NPs resulted from different Au nominal layer thicknesses on the morphology and optical properties of the ZnO fibers are investigated through various characterization methods. It is discovered that 4 nm Au nominal thickness provides the highest UV on/off ratio (~460), responsivity (~332 A/W), detectivity (~2.93×10 11 Jones) as well as faster rise and decay times as compared to pure ZnO nanofibers. A broad spectral response from UV to NIR... 

Kinetics of oxidation of MgO-C refractories was investigated by shrinking core modeling of the gas-solid reactions taking place during heating the porous materials to the high temperatures. Samples containing 4.5-17 wt pct graphite were isothermally oxidized at 1000-1350°C. Weight loss data was compared with predictions of the model. A mixed 2-stage mechanism comprised of pore diffusion plus boundary layer gas transfer was shown to generally control the oxidation rate. Pore diffusion was however more effective, especially at graphite contents lower than 10 wt pct under forced convection blowing of the air. Model calculations showed that effective gas diffusion coefficients were in the range... 

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with diameter of about 50 nm were synthesized using thermal chemical vapor deposition. We have investigated the influence of Mg doping to the MWCNTs on its hydrogen storage property. TEM micrographs showed that Mg was attached to the MWCNTs and discontinuous arrangement of the carbon walls was recognized in the MWCNTs. According to XPS and BET analyses, the surface functional groups and pore size of the Mg-MWCNTs are increased by interactions between the Mg and the MWCNT's outer walls. The electrochemical discharging curves of the MWCNTs and Mg-doped MWCNTs revealed that the hydrogen storage capacity was 363 and 450 mAhg -1, respectively. Volumetric... 

Using multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), the present study focuses on their electrochemical hydrogen storage capacities. The results showed that the hydrogen desorption process is composed of two steps with voltages around -0.75 and -0.15 V. Hydrogen adsorption at -0.15 V took place at temperatures above 30 °C, and the amount of energy required for adsorbing hydrogen was 1.68 eV. The hydrogen storage capacity increased with increasing electrolyte temperature from 30 to 60 °C in both steps. The hydrogen storage capacity of the MWCNTs treated at different atmospheres showed that the decrease in the graphitization of MWCNTs led to the increase in hydrogen adsorption. The results also... 

The effects of HCl, HNO3, H2SO4 and HF acids on the purification and the electrochemical hydrogen storage of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were studied. The MWCNTs were synthesized on Fe-Ni catalyst by thermal chemical vapor deposition method. The X-ray diffraction and thermal gravimetric analysis results indicated that the MWCNTs purified by HF acid had the highest impurities as compared with the other acids. The N2 adsorption results at 77 K indicated that all the samples were mainly mesoporous and the purified MWCNTs by HF acid had the highest surface area as compared with the other acids. The hydrogen storage capacities of the purified MWCNTs by the following acids were in... 

Understanding the nature of the interaction between metal nanoparticles and biomolecules has been important in the development and design of sensors. In this paper, structural, electronic, and bonding properties of the neutral and anionic forms of glutathione tripeptide (GSH) complexes with a Au 3 cluster were studied using the DFT-B3LYP with 6-31+G**-LANL2DZ mixed basis set. Binding of glutathione with the gold cluster is governed by two different kinds of interactions: Auâ€"X (X = N, O, and S) anchoring bond and Au··•·•H-X nonconventional hydrogen bonding. The influence of the intramolecular hydrogen bonding of glutathione on the interaction of this peptide with the gold cluster has been... 

We report a study on hydrogen storage in Ca, Co, Fe, Ni, and Pd decorated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) by using two techniques: volumetric and electrochemical. The results showed that hydrogen molecules are adsorbed on the defect sites and transported to the spaces between adjacent carbon via diffusion through both defect sites and opened tips into the layers. Hydrogen storage capacity can be improved in the decorated MWCNT by Co, Fe, Ni, and Ca metals in two approaches: (i) H2 adsorption via Kubas interaction and (ii) dissociation of H2 molecules on the metal particles. The results reveal that Pd are more effective catalyst for hydrogen storage process. It was found that... 

The evolution of robotic technology has heightened the demands for robots capable of social interaction with humans, also known as social robots. The encouraging prospects of deploying this advanced assistive tool in entertainment, healthcare, and education have, in turn, promoted substantial growth in studies conducted on the human-robot interaction (HRI) topic. One hot HRI subject is the examination of social robots' efficacy within various educational scenarios, e.g., word learning. In the context of word learning, fast mapping (FM) is a well-established technique through which novel words are taught by contrasting them with previously known words. The concept of this approach originates...