Sharif Digital Repository

The research study examines the impact of enterprise social media (ESM) on employees’ competence through the mediating role of knowledge sharing and the moderating influence of information relevance. The study was conducted with 272 respondents working in various educational institutions in Multan City, Pakistan, using a structured questionnaire to collect data. The research findings indicate that enterprise social media positively affects employees’ competencies, and knowledge sharing plays a significant role in mediating this effect. The study also suggests that information relevance moderates the relationship between ESM and employees’ competencies, indicating that the association is... 

Herein, an electrochemical technique as a cost-effective and one-step approach was utilized to fabricate graphene quantum dots (GQDs). Different amounts of GQDs (0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.8, and 1.2 wt %) were decorated uniformly on the surface of anodized ZnO nanowires (NWs) forming GQD/ZnO NWs. Transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy confirmed formation of GQDs on the ZnO NWs, 12-22 nm in width and 1-3 graphene layers thick. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were employed to verify the functional groups on the surface of GQDs, and the results indicated that GQDs readily anchored on the surface of ZnO NWs. The GQD/ZnO NWs exhibited a... 

In the study of chemical graph theory, an enormous number of research analyses have confirmed that the characteristics of chemicals have a nearby connection with their atomic structure. Topological indices were the critical tools for the analysis of these chemical substances to consider the essential topology of chemical structures. Topological descriptors are the significant numerical quantities or invariant in the fields of chemical graph theory. In this study, we have studied the crystal structure of copper oxide (Cu2O) chemical graph, and further, we have calculated the ev-degree-and ve-degree-based topological indices of copper oxide chemical graph. This kind of study may be useful for... 

For the first time, in the current work, a dynamic stability analysis of a tilted curved pipe in a supersonic airflow under thermal loading is presented. The heat-transfer continuum problem is used for simulating the thermal environment conditions. The tilted pipe is reinforced by carbon nanotube agglomerations (CNTAs). For simulating the displacement fields of the current structure, Quasi-2D refined high order shear deformation theory is studied. The verification segment is divided into two parts. In the first and second sections, the credibility of the results of this study are confirmed by the results extracted using COMSOL multiphysics software and published articles in the literature,... 

Although hematite (i.e., α-Fe2O3) has been widely investigated in photoelectrochemical water oxidation studies due to its high theoretical photocurrent density, it still suffers from serious surface charge recombination and low photoelectrochemical stability. Here we report an in situ electrochemical method to form a uniform and ultrathin (i.e., 3-5 nm) passivation layer all over the pores of an optimized ∼3.2% Ti-doped α-Fe2O3 photoanode. We unveil the amorphous and defective nature of the in situ derived layer assigned to a high concentration of oxygen vacancies and intercalated potassium atoms there, i.e., the formation of Ti/K co-doped defective α-Fe2O3−x. Owing to the efficient... 

In this paper, an advanced integrated pixel-level method based on the deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) approach named DeepLabv3+ is proposed for weak interlayers detection and quantification. Furthermore, a database containing 32,040 images of limestone, dolomite, loess clay, and red clay is established to verify this method. The proposed model is then trained, validated, and tested via feeding multiple weak interlayers. Moreover, robustness and adaptability of the proposed model are evaluated, and the weak interlayers are extracted. Compared with the fully convolutional network (FCN)-based method and traditional image techniques, the proposed model provides higher accuracy in terms... 

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of two compatibilizers, namely maleated polypropylene (PP-g-MA) and maleic anhydride grafted poly (ethylene-co-octene) (EOC-g-MA), on the morphology and thus properties of ternary nanocomposites of polypropylene (PP)/ethylene-octene copolymer (EOC)/clay nanocomposite. In this regard the nanocomposites and their neat polymer blend counterparts were processed twice using a twin screw extruder. X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy were utilized to characterize nanostructure and microstructure besides mechanical and rheological behaviors of the... 

Operation of solid oxide fuel/electrolysis cells (SOFC/SOEC) at high temperatures (T > 850 °C) is accompanied by degradation phenomena, which severely affect the operational lifetime of the cell. Degradation processes are expected to occur slower at low temperatures. However, significant reduction in electrocatalytic activity of the oxygen electrode, is one of the major challenges in decreasing the operating temperature down to 500 °C-650 °C. Recently, Pr6O11 infiltrated Ce0.9Gd0.1O2 (CGO) based electrodes have been proposed to realize high electrochemical performance at intermediate temperature. In this study, Pr-oxide has been infiltrated into a well performing sub-micro... 

A novel super-resolution volumetric photoacoustic microscopy, based on the theory of structured-illumination, is proposed in this paper. The structured-illumination will be introduced in order to surpass the diffraction limit in a photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) structure. Through optical excitation of the targeted object with a sinusoidal spatial fringe pattern, the object's frequency spectrum is forced to shift in the spatial frequency domain. The shifting in the desired direction leads to the passage of the high-frequency contents of the object through the passband of the acoustic diffraction frequency response. Finally, combining the low-frequency image with the high-frequency parts in... 

This article focuses on the impact of waviness and aggregation of nanofillers on wave dispersion behavior of the nanocomposite curved beam strengthened with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). In fact, the aggregation phenomenon is an inevitable subject in the manufacturing process of strengthened nanocomposite materials. Furthermore, in reality, usage of straight nanoreinforcements is almost impossible. So, MWCNTs can be wavy. These noted topics can significantly affect mechanical behavior of reinforced nanocomposite structures. In the current investigation, aggregation and waviness factors are accounted for through a modified Halpin-Tsai micromechanical homogenization model. The... 

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to develop and compare conventional and neural network-based controllers for gas turbines. Design/methodology/approach - Design of two different controllers is considered. These controllers consist of a NARMA-L2 which is an artificial neural network-based nonlinear autoregressive moving average (NARMA) controller with feedback linearization, and a conventional proportional-integrator-derivative (PID) controller for a low-power aero gas turbine. They are briefly described and their parameters are adjusted and tuned in Simulink-MATLAB environment according to the requirement of the gas turbine system and the control objectives. For this purpose, Simulink... 

In this paper, different injectivity scenarios were experimentally investigated in a coreflooding system to observe the efficiency of each method in laboratory conditions. Surfactant flooding, CO2 injection, carbonated water injection (CWI), active carbonated water injection (ACWI), after water flooding were investigated through the coreflooding system. First, it is necessary to optimize the surfactant concentration and then use it in ACWI injection. To do this, linear alkylbenzene sulfonic acid (LABSA) was used as a cationic surfactant at different concentrations. It was observed that 0.6 PV concentration of LABSA had an optimum result as increasing the surfactant concentration would not be... 

We implement an optical tweezers technique to assess the effects of chemical agents on single bacterial cells. As a proof of principle, the viability of a trapped Escherichia coli bacterium is determined by monitoring its flagellar motility in the presence of varying concentrations of ethyl alcohol. We show that the “killing time” of the bacterium can be effectively identified from the correlation statistics of the positional time series recorded from the trap, while direct quantification from the time series or associated power spectra is intractable. Our results, which minimize the lethal effects of bacterial photodamage, are consistent with previous reports of ethanol toxicity that used... 

In this study, critical temperature and frequency characteristics of a doubly curved panel are reinforced by graphene nanoplatelets (GPLs) with the aid of a two-dimensional generalized differential quadrature method (2D-GDQM) are investigated. The size effects are included using nonlocal strain gradient theory (NSGT) that has two length scale parameters, and the panel is modeled as a panel using high order shear deformation theory (HSDT). The mechanical properties of GPLs are calculated based on the rule of mixtures and the modified Halpin-Tsai model. The novelty of the current study is in considering the effects of the thermal environment, various boundary conditions, and size effects on... 

Insufficient electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction/evolution in lanthanum strontium ferrite (LSF) perovskites at temperatures below 700 °C, limits the utilization of these Co-free oxides as oxygen electrodes for intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel/electrolysis cells (SOFC/SOEC). Marked performance improvement is here reported by decorating the surface with Pr2Ni1-xCuxO4 catalyst particles. Infiltrating porous LSF electrodes with aqueous nitrates solutions containing Pr, Ni and Cu, targeting the compositions Pr2Ni0.7Cu0.3O4 and Pr2Ni0.6Cu0.4O4, significantly reduces the polarization resistance at 650 °C from 0.98 Ω cm2 to 0.16 Ω cm2 and 0.13 Ω cm2 respectively. Electrical... 

The treatment of refractory wastewater and energy utilization are challenging environmental issues. Carbonate as the most common anion abounds in the aquatic environment. Here, we proposed a novel method to degrade carbonate-containing wastewater and simultaneous electricity generation via the combined oxidation of CO3[rad]− and O2[rad]− radicals. The CO3[rad]− radical was produced by the photoelectrode of TiO2/Si photovoltaic cell with the rear Si photovoltaic cell providing external bias, and the O2[rad]− radical was produced from the generation of H2O2 on a gas diffusion electrode (GDE), and they were both further enhanced from the activation reaction of H2O2 with HCO3− electrolyte. The... 

We propose and demonstrate a novel architecture for four-wave mixing (FWM)-based recognition of spectral amplitude code (SAC) labels in optical packet-switched networks. With a proper code design, a unique FWM idler for each SAC label, referred to as a label identifier (LI), is generated in a nonlinear medium. A serial array of fiber Bragg gratings is then used to reflect the LI wavelengths. Each LI is associated with a unique amount of delay between two optical signals received at two photodiodes (PDs). Label recognition is then achieved by measuring this unique time delay (referred to as the characteristic delay). The main advantages of the proposed method include the following: no... 

This study implements an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) approach to predict the precipitation amount of the asphaltene using temperature (T), dilution ratio (Rv), and molecular weight of different n-alkanes. Results are then evaluated using graphical and statistical error analysis methods, confirming the model’s great ability for appropriate prediction of the precipitation amount. Mean squared error and determination coefficient (R2) values of 0.036 and 0.995, respectively are obtained for the proposed ANFIS model. Results are then compared to those from previously reported correlations revealing the better performance of the proposed model. © 2018, © 2018 Taylor & Francis... 

Graphene, a two-dimensional (2D) sheet of sp2-hybridized carbon atoms packed into a honeycomb lattice, has led to an explosion of interest in the field of materials science, physics, chemistry, and biotechnology since the few-layers graphene (FLG) flakes were isolated from graphite in 2004. For an extended search, derivatives of nanomedicine such as biosensing, biomedical, antibacterial, diagnosis, cancer and photothermal therapy, drug delivery, stem cell, tissue engineering, imaging, protein interaction, DNA, RNA, toxicity, and so on were also added. Since carbon nanotubes are normally described as rolled-up cylinders of graphene sheets and the controllable synthesis of nanotubes is well... 

For a dye-sensitized solar cell with a near-infrared squaraine (SQ1) sensitizer, the photovoltaic performance was enhanced remarkably with a reflective luminescent down-shifting (R-LDS) layer to increase the light-harvesting efficiency at the wavelength region 400-550 nm where the SQ1 dye has weak absorption. Relative enhancements greater than 200% in IPCE near 500 nm and 40-54% in JSC were achieved with red phosphor CaAlSiN 3:Eu2+ as the LDS material, attaining 5.0 and 4.8% overall efficiencies of power conversion for the R-LDS layer coated on the counter electrode (front illumination) and working electrode (back illumination), respectively