Sharif Digital Repository

According to the Highway Capacity Manual, definitions of level of service for freeways are generally in terms of such service measures as freedom to maneuver, change in free flow speed, and drivers' physical and psychological comfort. These quality measures are inherently uncertain and are highly dependent on user perceptions. However, users' perception of traffic operational conditions has not been explicitly considered in defining LOS categories. This study attempt to evaluate freeways LOS and other quality measures describing LOS, based on user perception. Therefore, twenty 1-minute video clips of a weaving freeway segment were shown to users. For each video clip, users' perceptions of... 

Wind towers or wind catchers, as passive cooling systems, can provide natural ventilation in buildings located in hot, arid regions. These natural cooling systems can provide thermal comfort for the building inhabitants throughout the warm months. In this paper, a modular design of a wind tower is introduced. The design, called a modular wind tower with wetted surfaces, was investigated experimentally and analytically. To determine the performance of the wind tower, air temperature, relative humidity (RH) and air velocity were measured at different points. Measurements were carried out when the wind speed was zero. The experimental results were compared with the analytical ones. The results... 

Passive cooling systems such as wind towers or wind catchers can create thermal comfort for building residents in hot and dry regions. This paper introduces an experimental study of a modular design of wind tower called the modular wind tower with wetted surfaces. Air temperature, relative humidity (RH) and airflow velocity parameters were measured at different times and at points when the velocity of the ambient air was zero. The results show that the modular wind tower can decrease the air temperature by an average of 10 °C and increase the relative humidity of airflow in a building by approximately 36% on average. Additionally, the wind tower can create the airflow velocity entering the... 

The deposition of tetrakis (4-sulonatophenyl) porphyrin (TPPS) thin film on optical fibers presents many possibilities for sensing applications. The J-form aggregation with a narrow and sharp spectral feature at about 490 nm and its sensitivity to humidity have been discussed; a fast change of wavelength occurs according with variation in the humidity level. The reproducibility and high sensitivity of TPPS-coated fibers, along with the capabilities of optical fibers, suggest the device as a good candidate for humidity sensing in harsh environments. © 2018, The Author(s)  

In our previous work, a distributed moisture sensor based on the induced long-period fiber grating in the presence of moisture is proposed. The proposed structure is analyzed numerically (Opt Laser Technol 117:126–133, 2019). In this article, due to the axial symmetry and periodic structure of the proposed sensor, the Love’s potential and Fourier series are employed to obtain an analytical solution for the refractive index variation along the sensor versus moisture density. The analytical method reduces the computation time relative to our numerical calculation drastically. The analytical results are in good agreement with those that are obtained by numerical calculations. The analytical... 

Background: Lower limb amputation is a major public health issue globally, and its prevalence is increasing significantly around the world. Previous studies on lower limb amputees showed analogous complexity implemented by the neurological system which does not depend on the level of amputation. Research question: What are the differences in muscle synergies between healthy subjects (HS) and transfemoral amputees (TFA) during self-selected normal transient-state walking speed? Methods: thirteen male HS and eleven male TFA participated in this study. Surface electromyography (sEMG) data were collected from HS dominant leg and TFA intact limb. Concatenated non-negative matrix factorization... 

Research question: Would there be differences in muscle activation between healthy subjects’ (HS) dominant leg and transfemoral amputees’ (TFA) intact-leg/contralateral-limb (IL) during normal transient-state walking speed? Methods: The muscle activation patterns are obtained by calculating the linear envelope of the EMG signals for each group. The activation patterns/temporal changes are compared between-population using statistical parametric mapping (SPM). Results: Individual muscle activity showed significant differences in all muscles except vastus lateralis (VL), semitendinosus (SEM) and tensor fascia latae (TFL) activities. Significance: The information could be used by the therapists... 

In this paper, a distributed relative humidity (RH) or moisture sensor is proposed. The proposed structure is a single mode telecommunication optical fiber coated by humidity sensitive and insensitive polymers periodically. The polymer coated fiber is surrounded by a high Young's modulus material such as stainless steel mesh. The swelling of the coated Humidity Sensitive Polymers (HSPs) as a result of moisture absorption induces fiber gratings in the single mode fiber. Depending on the coating period relative to the light wavelength, the induced fiber grating can be Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) or Long Period Fiber Grating (LPFG). The light reflected by the induced FBG or losses due to the... 

Conventional wastewater treatment processes are not completely effective in removing vancomycin. In this study, affecting parameters on vancomycin degradation, such as pH, catalyst, initial vancomycin concentration, temperature, and reaction time were investigated simultaneously during a removal process based on titanium dioxide with ultraviolet irradiation in an aqueous solution. Titanium dioxide was synthesized and characterized using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The average size of the synthesized crystals was 4.7 (± 0.2) nm. Design of experiments was done by a central composite design based on the response surface methodology and multiple linear regression was... 

Investigations have shown the traces of antibiotics in surface water, groundwater, wastewater treatment plants, and drinking water. However, conventional wastewater treatment is not entirely effective for vancomycin degradation. Advanced oxidation is one of the most widespread methods of antibiotic degradation in aqueous media. Vancomycin was quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography. The Response Surface Methodology (RSM) based on Central Composite Design (CCD) was used to explore and optimise the effect of the independent variables on vancomycin degradation. Independent variables were as follows: pH (3–11), vancomycin concentration (15–75 mg/L), TiO2–clinoptilolite (25–125 mg in... 

An analytic method for prediction of oscillation amplitude and supply current of differential CMOS oscillators is presented. The validity of this method has been verified by designing an LC CMOS oscillator in a 0.24 μm CMOS technology. The predictions are in good agreement with simulation results over a wide range of supply voltage  

A novel, precision current reference with low temperature and supply sensitivity and without any external component has been designed in a 0.18μm CMOS mixed-mode process. The circuit is based on a bandgap reference (BGR) voltage and a CMOS circuit like a beta multiplier. The simulation results show max-to-min fluctuation of about 1% over a temperature range of -20°C to +100°C and supply voltage range of 1.1V to 2V with ±30% tolerance for all of the used on-chip resistors. The maximum nominal current variation in process corners is less than 3.5%. © 2003 IEEE  

A novel current reference with low temperature and supply sensitivity and without any external component has been developed in a 0.25 μm mixed-mode process. The circuit is based on a bandgap reference (BGR) voltage and a CMOS circuit similar to a beta multiplier. An NMOS transistor in triode region has been used in place of a resistor in conventional beta multiplier to achieve a current which has a negative temperature coefficient and only oxide thickness dependent. The BGR voltage has a positive temperature coefficient to cancel the negative temperature coefficient of the beta multiplier. The simulation results using Bsim3v3 model show max-to-min fluctuation of less than 1 % over a... 

An analytic method to predict the oscillation amplitude and supply current values of a differential CMOS oscillator is presented. A simplified model to predict the phase noise performance for this type of oscillator is developed. Using this method, it becomes possible to design an optimised oscillator in terms of a minimum phase noise and low power consumption. The validity of the method has been verified by designing a LC CMOS oscillator using 0.25 μm CMOS technology. The predictions are in good agreement with simulation results over a wide range of the supply voltage  

Abstract: This study investigates the catalytic activity of mixed–metal oxide nanoparticles with different surface acidities on asphaltene adsorption followed by catalytic oxidation–decomposition. Three different types of mixed–metal oxide nanoparticles (CeNiO3, CeCaO3 and CeZrO4) were synthesized, and their size, structure, and acid properties were characterized by field–emission scanning electron microscopy (FE–SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), the high–resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area measurement and ammonia temperature-programmed desorption (NH3–TPD). Asphaltenes were extracted... 

In our previous works, we presented a theoretical approach to describe the behavior of a single-mode step-index optical fiber or polymer optical fiber such as poly (methyl methacrylate) or PMMA fiber coated by moisture-sensitive polymers (MSPs) and moisture-insensitive polymers periodically. The periodic structure is surrounded by a high young's modulus material such as stainless steel mesh. Absorption of the moisture by the MSPs causes to deform the optical fiber, such that the optical fiber gratings are induced. Induced fiber gratings are the basis of the proposed relative moisture sensor. Due to the low Young's modulus of polymers, the polymer fiber sensors are more sensitive relative to... 

In this work, we use 13 microlensing candidates with dark lenses from OGLE III catalogue [L. Wyrzykowski et al., Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 458 (2016) 3012.] and cross-match them with the GAIA catalogue. We identify the microlensing source stars in the GAIA catalogue by comparing the coordinate and the magnitude of stars and using the proper motion and the parallax parameters of the source stars. Combining with the microlensing light curves as well as the microlensing parallax effect, we determine the mass and the distance of lenses from Earth. We conclude that the lens for this set of microlensing events for the massive lenses are black hole and for the small lenses are neutron/white dwarf... 

In the present study, the dissimilar aluminum alloys of 5083-H12 and 6061-T6 were joined by friction stir welding (FSW). Then, the design of experiments (DOE), the Box-Benken method, and the response surface methodology (RSM) were used to optimize the effective parameters of the FSW process. The optimized parameters that led to the maximum tensile strength in dissimilar friction stir welded sheets were determined. The predicted results were then compared with those measured experimentally. The results show that there is good agreement between the predicted and measured amounts. By applying the limit dome height (LDH) test, the formability of friction stir welded sheets was studied. During... 

In this paper, we consider the following problem: given an undirected graph G=(V,E) and an integer k, find I⊆V2 with |I|≤k in such a way that G'=(V,E∪I) has the maximum number of triangles (a cycle of length 3). We first prove that this problem is NP-hard and then give an approximation algorithm for it  

A reduced complexity third-order digital delta-sigma modulator is presented. The modulator consists of two cascaded sections to produce proper shaping of quantization noise with minimum hardware. A new architecture for a digital third-order delta-sigma modulator based on Ritchie structure is proposed. The measurement results show 94dB SNR and 65% dynamic range