Sharif Digital Repository

Development of visual detection methods regarding water pollutants can effectively facilitate water resource monitoring programs. A wide color-varying ratiometric approach has been developed for sensitive determination of sulfide by mixing orange emissive glutathione stabilized gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) and blue emissive urea stabilized carbon dots (CDs) in an appropriate ratio. Under a single excitation wavelength of 365 nm, the ratiometric fluorescence (RF) probe exhibited two distinct emission bands at 452 and 607 nm corresponding to CDs and AuNCs, respectively. Owing to the high affinity of sulfide ions to AuNCs in alkaline medium, the fluorescence (FL) of AuNCs was turned-off while the... 

A simple and effective ratiometric fluorescence sensor for selective detection of dopamine (DA) in alkaline media has been developed by simply mixing thioglycolic acid (TGA) functionalized orange fluorescent cadmium telluride (CdTe) quantum dots (QDs) with amino-functionalized blue fluorescent carbon nanodots (CDs). Under a single excitation wavelength of 365 nm, the sensor exhibits dual-emissions centered at 445 and 603 nm. The fluorescence of CdTe QDs is selectively quenched by DA, whereas the fluorescence of CDs is insensitive to the analyte. In the presence of different amounts of DA, the variations in the dual emission intensity ratios exhibit a continuous color change from pink to... 

Under new reregulation environment an open access to transmission system is desired. Transmission system operators (TSOs) are encouraged to use the existing facilities more efficiently. This paper focuses on the evaluation of the impact of FACTS devices on Available Transfer Capability (ATC) and its enhancement. Genetic algorithm is used for optimisation process of the best location of SVC as a FACTS device. Improvement of voltage profile as well as TTC enhancement is achieved by applying a proposed methodology through some case studies  

Owing to its dual role as a hormone and neurotransmitter, norepinephrine (NE) detection is of great significance to biomedical diagnosis. In the present work, we have explored intense green fluorescence of poly (norepinephrine) (PNE) nanoparticles synthesized by oxidizing NE in alkaline condition, in combination with red fluorescent bovine serum albumin-stabilized gold nanoclusters (BSA-AuNCs) for naked-eye detection of NE. The effect of sodium hydroxide on the emission behavior of NE was studied. The surface morphology and optical properties of PNE nanoparticles were characterized by UV–Vis, fluorescence, FTIR, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS)... 

Electrochromism (EC) is a unique property of certain materials that undergo an electrochemical-induced change in colouration. During the last decades, electrochromic materials (ECMs) have been applied in a variety of technologies ranging from smart windows to information displays and energy storage devices. More recently, ECMs have attracted the attention of the (bio)sensing community thanks to their ability to combine the sensitivity of electrochemical methods with the intuitive readout of optical sensors. Although still a nascent technology, EC-based sensors are on the rise with several targets (e.g. cancer biomarkers, bacteria, metabolites and pesticides), which have already been detected... 

Signal generation techniques for visual detection of analytes have received a great deal of attention in various sensing fields. These approaches are considered to be advantageous when instrumentation cannot be employed, such as for on-site assays, point-of-care tests, and he althcare diagnostics in resource-constrained areas. Amongst various visual detection approaches explored for non-invasive quantitative measurements, ratiometric fluorescence sensing has received particular attention as a potential method to overcome the limitations of intensity-based probes. This technique relies on changes in the intensity of two or more emission bands (induced by an analyte), resulting in an effective... 

The majority of lateral flow assays (LFAs) use single-color optical labels to provide a qualitative naked-eye detection, however this detection method displays two important limitations. First, the use of a single-color label makes the LFA prone to results misinterpretation. Second, it does not allow the precise modulation of the sensitivity and dynamic range of the test. To overcome these limitations, a ratiometric approach is developed. In particular, using anti-HIgG functionalized red-fluorescent quantum dots on the conjugate pad (as target dependent labels) and blue-fluorescent nanoparticles fixed on the test line (as target independent reporters), it is possible to generate a wide color... 

Stable control of water level of drum is of great importance for economic operation of power plant steam generator systems. In this paper, a linear model of the boiler unit with time varying parameters is used for simulation. Two transfer functions between drum water level (output variable) and feed-water and steam mass rates (input variables) are considered. Variation of model parameters may be arisen from disturbances affecting water level of drum, model uncertainties and parameter mismatch due to the variant operating conditions. To achieve a perfect tracking of the desired drum water level, two sliding mode controllers are designed separately. Results show that the designed controllers... 

Simulation is the gold standard for training in aviation and trauma medicine. Now it is available for diseases diagnosis and treatment. With simulation, clinicians can practice their art in a realistic, consequence free environment, combining both theory and practice in a comprehensive program. Method and materials - In the virtual clinical environment of "VPsoft mentor" software, the practitioner reviews a patient's history, orders laboratory tests and procedures, interprets findings, renders diagnoses, and prescribes medication. Every diagnostic or treatment decision the clinician makes for the patient is analyzed by E-mentor, providing instant feedback.Results - This software have been... 

The growth of database application usage requires DataBase Management Systems (DBMS) that are accessible, reliable, and dependable. One approach to handle these requirements is replication mechanism. Replication mechanism can be divided into various categories. Some related works consider two categories for replication mechanisms: heterogeneous and homogenous however majority of them classify them in three groups: physical, trigger-based and log based schema. Log-based replication mechanisms are the most widely used category among DBMS vendors. Adapting such approach for heterogeneous systems is a complex task, because of lack of log understanding in the other end. Semantic technologies... 

Simulating signal transduction in cellular signaling networks provides predictions of network dynamics by quantifying the changes in concentration and activity-level of the individual proteins. Since numerical values of kinetic parameters might be difficult to obtain, it is imperative to develop non-parametric approaches that combine the connectivity of a network with the response of individual proteins to signals which travel through the network. The activity levels of signaling proteins computed through existing non-parametric modeling tools do not show significant correlations with the observed values in experimental results. In this work we developed a non-parametric computational... 

A signaling pathway is a sequence of proteins and passenger molecules that transmits information from the cell surface to target molecules. Understanding signal transduction process requires detailed description of the involved pathways. Several methods and tools resolved this problem by incorporating genomic and proteomic data. However, the difficulty of obtaining prior knowledge of complex signaling networks limited the applicability of these tools. In this study, based on the simulation of signal flow in signaling network, we introduce a method for determining dominant pathways and signal response to stimulations. The model uses topology-weighted transit compartment approach and comprises... 

One of the main applications of citation is to find articles that are relevant to a particular article. However, not all citations are equally relevant to the target article. This paper presents an approach to identify the most relevant citation(s). To this end, the Normalized Similarity Index (NSI) is proposed to quantify the similarity between the source and target of a citation base on the co-citations and references shared by them. To validate the method, NSI was calculated for five citation networks and was compared with the peer review grades for the relevancy between the source and the target articles. The results showed a significant correlation between the NSI ranks and those of... 

Patellofemoral joint stability is a result of the restraining effects of the quadriceps muscles, the retinacular structures, and engagement of the bones. The role and significance of these mechanisms in restraining patellar lateral displacement was investigated in this study by measuring the force needed to cause 5 mm lateral displacement (i.e. the mechanical stability, or 'stabilising force') of the patella. Six cadaver knees had 175 N quadriceps load distributed among three muscle groups. With a force ratio matching the muscles physiological cross sectional areas, no significant change occurred in the patellar stabilising force between 0 and 60°knee flexion, but a significant increase... 

The use of Computer Science in order to categorize and store information, improve diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, patient education and the training of a skilled labor force, has taken important steps and there are constantly new developments in this area  

The robotic rehabilitation devices can undertake the difficult physical therapy tasks and provide improved treatment procedures for post stroke patients. During passive working mode, the speed of the exercise needs to be controlled continuously by the robot to avoid excessive injurious torques. We designed a fuzzy controller for a hand rehabilitation robot to adjust the exercise speed by considering the wrist angle and joint resistive torque, measured continuously, and the patient's general condition, determined by the therapist. With a set of rules based on an expert therapist experience, the fuzzy system could adapt effectively to the neuromuscular conditions of the patient's paretic hand.... 

The aim of this study is to show the effectiveness of prohibited operating zone. Generation scheduling is a crucial challenge in power systems especially under new environment of liberalization of electricity industry. This study is focused on the economical aspect of unit commitment problem. Since, the generating units may have certain ranges where operation is restricted based upon physical limitations of machine components or instability. Therefore, Prohibited Operating Zones (POZ) as a redundant constraint is considered, while the next load demand as a very important issue is deliberated. In this study generation scheduling of each hour is conducted by considering the next load demands... 

Background: Long reads provide valuable information regarding the sequence composition of genomes. Long reads are usually very noisy which renders their alignments on the reference genome a daunting task. It may take days to process datasets enough to sequence a human genome on a single node. Hence, it is of primary importance to have an aligner which can operate on distributed clusters of computers with high performance in accuracy and speed. Results: In this paper, we presented IMOS, an aligner for mapping noisy long reads to the reference genome. It can be used on a single node as well as on distributed nodes. In its single-node mode, IMOS is an Improved version of Meta-aligner (IM)...