Sharif Digital Repository

A nontrivial portion of heavy-duty vehicle emissions of NOx and particulate matter (PM) occurs during idling. Regulators and the environmental community are interested in curtailing truck idling emissions, but current emissions models do not characterize them accurately, and little quantitative data exist to evaluate the relative effectiveness of various policies. The objectives of this study were to quantify the effect of accessory loading and engine speed on idling emissions from a properly functioning, modern, heavy-duty diesel truck and to compare these results with data from earlier model year vehicles. It was found that emissions during idling varied greatly as a function of engine... 

The objective was to determine the effect of several variables - vehicle operation, weight, and accessory use - on emissions production during common on-road heavy-duty vehicle operations. Oxides of nitrogen (NOx), hydrocarbon, and carbon monoxide emissions from a heavy-duty diesel tractor equipped with a 1999 engine were measured continuously during on-road tests. The vehicle was operated at predetermined steady-state modes of 25, 55, and 65 mph as well as full-throttle accelerations from 0 to 25 mph and 0 to 55 mph and decelerations from 65 to 0 mph. Vehicle weight (payload) and accessory use (air-conditioning) were varied. In general, increases in gross vehicle weight from 52,000 lb to... 

Coupling of side chain dynamics over long distances is an important component of allostery. Methionine side chains show the largest intrinsic flexibility among methyl-containing residues but the actual degree of conformational averaging depends on the proximity and mobility of neighboring residues. The 13C NMR chemical shifts of the methyl groups of methionine residues located at long distances in the same protein show a similar scaling with respect to the values predicted from the static X-ray structure by quantum methods. This results in a good linear correlation between calculated and observed chemical shifts. The slope is protein dependent and ranges from zero for the highly flexible... 

Coupling of side chain dynamics over long distances is an important component of allostery. Methionine side chains show the largest intrinsic flexibility among methyl-containing residues but the actual degree of conformational averaging depends on the proximity and mobility of neighboring residues. The 13C NMR chemical shifts of the methyl groups of methionine residues located at long distances in the same protein show a similar scaling with respect to the values predicted from the static X-ray structure by quantum methods. This results in a good linear correlation between calculated and observed chemical shifts. The slope is protein dependent and ranges from zero for the highly flexible... 

Quasi-ultrafine (quasi-UF) particulate matter (PM0.25) and its components were measured in indoor and outdoor environments at four retirement communities in Los Angeles Basin, California, as part of the Cardiovascular Health and Air Pollution Study (CHAPS). The present paper focuses on the characterization of the sources, organic constituents and indoor and outdoor relationships of quasi-UF PM. The average indoor/outdoor ratios of most of the measured polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), hopanes, and steranes were close to or slightly lower than 1, and the corresponding indoor-outdoor correlation coefficients (R) were always positive and, for the most part, moderately strong (median R... 

The vibration response of a Timoshenko beam supported by a viscoelastic foundation with randomly distributed parameters along the beam length and jected to a harmonic moving load, is studied. By means of the first-order two-dimensional regular perturbation method and employing appropriate Green's functions, the dynamic response of the beam consisting of the mean and variance of the deflection and of the bending moment are obtained analytically in integral forms. Results of a field measurement for a test track are utilized to model the uncertainty of the foundation parameters. A frequency analysis is carried out and the effect of the load speed on the response is studied. It is found that the... 

The response of infinite beams supported by nonlinear viscoelastic foundations subjected to harmonic moving loads is studied. A straightforward solution technique applicable in the frequency domain is presented in this paper. The governing equations are solved using a perturbation method in conjunction with complex Fourier transformation. A closed-formed solution is presented in an integral form based on the presented Green's function and the theorem of residues is used for the calculation of integrals. The solution is directed to compute the deflection and bending moment distribution along the length of the beam. A parametric study is carried out and influences of the load speed and... 

The ride comfort of high-speed trains passing over railway bridges is studied in this paper. The effects of some nonlinear parameters in a carriage-track-bridge system are investigated such as the load-stiffening characteristics of the rail-pad and the ballast, rubber elements in the primary and secondary suspension systems. The influence of the track irregularity and train speed on two comfort indicators, namely Sperling's comfort index and the maximum acceleration level, are also studied. Timoshenko beam theory is used for modelling the rail and bridge and two layers of parallel damped springs in conjunction with a layer of mass are used to model the rail-pads, sleepers and ballast. A... 

The insect circulatory system contains an open hemocoel, in which the mechanism of hemolymph flow control is ambiguous. As a continuous fluidic structure, this cavity should exhibit pressure changes that propagate quickly. Narrow-waisted insects create sustained pressure differences across segments, but their constricted waist provides an evident mechanism for compartmentalization. Insects with no obvious constrictions between segments may be capable of functionally compartmentalizing the body, which could explain complex hemolymph flows. Here, we test the hypothesis of functional compartmentalization by measuring pressures in a beetle and recording abdominal movements. We found that the... 

Derailment is one of the most hazardous occurrences affecting the safety of railroad cars that must be prevented. The potential threat of derailment could be especially significant when length of tangent between vertical curves isn't long enough. Although the length of tangent between vertical curves could be relevant to railway safety, no research had been conducted to study its effect on derailment risk. The primary objective of this paper was to investigate the effect of tangent length between vertical curves on derailment. This study consisted of three major components: (1) review of 1999-2008 derailment reports in Iran, (2) a regression analysis, and (3) recommendation model for... 

The number of homeless people at airports has increased in recent years. As airports are safe, transit-accessible, convenient, and climate-controlled facilities with food and amenities, these places are attractive to homeless people who need a safe and secure place to stay. The main struggle of airports in this regard is maintaining a balance between customers, who are mostly the traveling public, and dealing with homeless people delicately. Moreover, because of their poverty and insufficient or no access to healthcare, these people suffer from physical and mental issues. With the COVID-19 pandemic, this problem became more critical. Many news media outlets started to report on homelessness... 

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the biomechanical impact of laminectomy on cervical intersegmental motion and load sharing using a parametric patient-specific finite element (FE) model towards providing clinicians with a viable quantitative tool for informed decision-making and improved surgical planning. Methods: Ten subject-specific nonlinear osteo-ligamentous cervical spine (C3–C7) FE models were developed using X-ray image-based algorithms. The models were used to evaluate the effect of laminectomy on lower cervical spine biomechanics for two-level (C3–C4) and three-level (C3–C5) laminectomy procedures. Results: The average cervical spine ranges of motion (ROM) for the pre-op... 

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the biomechanical impact of laminectomy on cervical intersegmental motion and load sharing using a parametric patient-specific finite element (FE) model towards providing clinicians with a viable quantitative tool for informed decision-making and improved surgical planning. Methods: Ten subject-specific nonlinear osteo-ligamentous cervical spine (C3–C7) FE models were developed using X-ray image-based algorithms. The models were used to evaluate the effect of laminectomy on lower cervical spine biomechanics for two-level (C3–C4) and three-level (C3–C5) laminectomy procedures. Results: The average cervical spine ranges of motion (ROM) for the pre-op... 

In this work, the thermodynamic behavior of aqueous solutions containing the solutes NaCl, glucose, and/or urea is investigated. These substances are vital components for living bodies and further they are main components of blood serum. Osmotic coefficients were determined by cryoscopic measurements in single-solute and multi-solute aqueous solutions containing salts (NaCl, KCl, CaCl2), glucose, and/or urea. The results show that NaCl determines the osmotic coefficients in the urea/glucose/NaCl/water system. Investigation of the effect of different salts on osmotic coefficients revealed ion-specific effects. At physiologically important solute concentrations in typical blood serum... 

The presence of cracks in a structure can considerably affect its behaviour. This paper presents a finite element study on the vibration, buckling and dynamic stability behaviour of a cracked cylindrical shell with fixed supports and subject to an in plane compressive/tensile periodic edge load. The effects of crack length and orientation are analysed. Under tension load, the results show that the frequency of the shell initially increases with the load, but then decreases as the load further increases leading to buckling due to tension load. The size and the orientation of the crack and the loading parameter can all have a significant effect on the dynamic stability behaviour of the shell... 

Sulfur-containing gaseous contaminant treatment is a key issue in the healthy and sustainable development of industry, especially SO2 and H2S occur with natural gas extraction and fossil fuel burning. Traditionally, the commercial method for H2S or SO2 requires numerous desiccants and enormous energy consumption. Encouragingly, electrochemical coupling system, which provide an efficient, sustainable, and economic pathway for sulfur-containing gaseous contaminants removal, can convert H2S and SO2 to recyclable substance in a moderate environment and simultaneously transfer the energy contained in them to other more valuable product. The current review discusses the mechanism and principle of... 

We present high-precision photometry of two transit events of the extrasolar planetary system WASP-5, obtained with the Danish 1.54-m telescope at European Southern Obseratory La Silla. In order to minimize both random and flat-fielding errors, we defocused the telescope so its point spread function approximated an annulus of diameter 40 pixel (16 arcsec). Data reduction was undertaken using standard aperture photometry plus an algorithm for optimally combining the ensemble of comparison stars. The resulting light curves have point-to-point scatters of 0.50 mmag for the first transit and 0.59 mmag for the second. We construct detailed signal-to-noise ratio calculations for defocused... 

We report on the results of a YBa2Cu3O7−x (YBCO) superconductive transition edge bolometer (TEB) fabricated on a Ce0.9La0.1O2−7 (CLO) buffered single crystalline yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) substrate. Metal organic deposition was used for the fabrication of both the YBCO thin film as well as CLO buffer layer, while standard photolithography was applied for TEB preparation. YBCO thin film properties were analysed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), AC susceptibility and resistance versus temperature measurements. Optical response of the TEB in terms of voltage amplitude and phase was analysed and measured through four-probe technique in a liquid nitrogen... 

In this paper, a semi-supervised graph-based method for estimating 3D body pose from a sequence of silhouettes, is presented. The performance of graph-based methods is highly dependent on the quality of the constructed graph. In the case of the human pose estimation problem, the missing depth information from silhouettes intensifies the occurrence of shortcut edges within the graph. To identify and remove these shortcut edges, we measure the similarity of each pair of connected vertices through the use of sliding temporal windows. Furthermore, by exploiting the relationships between labeled and unlabeled data, the proposed method can estimate the 3D body poses, with a small set of labeled... 

We report on the results of a YBa2Cu3O7−x (YBCO) superconductive transition edge bolometer (TEB) fabricated on a Ce0.9La0.1O2−7 (CLO) buffered single crystalline yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) substrate. Metal organic deposition was used for the fabrication of both the YBCO thin film as well as CLO buffer layer, while standard photolithography was applied for TEB preparation. YBCO thin film properties were analysed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), AC susceptibility and resistance versus temperature measurements. Optical response of the TEB in terms of voltage amplitude and phase was analysed and measured through four-probe technique in a liquid nitrogen...