Sharif Digital Repository

This paper reviews the literature concerning the effectiveness of countermeasures at Highway-Railway Grade Crossings (HRGC). HRGC are considered as the hotspots in railway transportation systems. So far, there has been significant discussion about different types of countermeasure to mitigate the risk of accidents at HRGC. Different approaches have been developed about the effectiveness of the countermeasures including the Before-After and Cross-Sectional. This paper compares all different studies to evaluate the effectiveness of countermeasure in reduction of accident frequency and severity  

This paper presents the application of a fuzzy logic controlled Static Compensator (STATCOM) to improve stability of power system. The nonlinear fuzzy logic controller is used to overcome the problems generated by different uncertainties exist in power systems. Different input variables are used to design the controller. Parameters of the proposed controller are adjusted by means of Neural Network techniques to improve performance of the system. Proposed controller is implemented on a single machine infinite bus system to confirm the performance of the controller through simulation results  

Cloud Computing enables delivery of IT resources over the Internet and follows the pay-as-you-go billing model. The cloud infrastructures can be used as an appropriate environment for executing of workflow applications. To execute workflow applications in this environment, it is necessary to develop the workflow scheduling algorithms that consider different QoS parameters such as execution time and cost. Therefore, in this paper we focus on two criteria: total completion time (makespan) and execution cost of workflow, and propose two heuristic algorithms: MTDC (Minimum Time and Decreased Cost) which aims to create a schedule that minimizes the makespan and decreases execution cost, and CTDC... 

Cloud computing technology, which is a new model of service provisioning in distributed systems, has been raised as a way to execute workflow applications. To profit from this technology for executing workflow applications, it is necessary to develop workflow scheduling algorithms that consider different QoS parameters such as execution time and cost. Therefore, in this paper, we focus on two criteria: makespan (completion time) and execution cost of workflow application and propose a scheduling algorithm named CB-DT (Constrained Budget-Decreased Time) which aims to create a schedule that decreases the makespan while satisfying the budget constraint of the workflow application. In the... 

Cloud computing technology, which is a new model of service provisioning in distributed systems, has been raised as a way to execute workflow applications. To profit from this technology for executing workflow applications, it is necessary to develop workflow scheduling algorithms that consider different QoS parameters such as execution time and cost. Therefore, in this paper, we focus on two criteria: makespan (completion time) and execution cost of workflow application and propose a scheduling algorithm named CB-DT (Constrained Budget-Decreased Time) which aims to create a schedule that decreases the makespan while satisfying the budget constraint of the workflow application. In the... 

Simulation has been shown to be one of the most powerful tools in many areas of the health-care system, a system which attracted the attention of researchers due to its intricacy. The main goal of this study is to evaluate the patients' flow in an emergency department (ED). Discrete event simulation (DES)has been used as the core of this research so that it offers various ways to reduce the length of stay (LOS)of patients in different segments of ED by assessing various scenarios. In particular, a new approach for verification of the simulated model will be discussed. This study reports on the results that extracted from a case study on patient record data in one of the EDs located in Tehran... 

Quality of Service (QoS) of Web services plays an essential role in selecting Web services by consumers. The dynamic QoS attributes of Web services have different values for different users. Therefore, the value of many Web services' QoS features for many users are undetermined, and these values should be predicted. The collaborative filtering (CF) method is one of the most successful approaches to predict these values. CF-based methods use the QoS values contributed by the other users for prediction and, consequently, the values contributed by unreliable users can decrease the accuracy of prediction. To utilize the reputation of users can be regarded as one of the conventional approaches to... 

The artificial neural network (ANN) is a sort of machine learning method which has been used in determination of risk of human disorders. In the current investigation, we have created an ANN and trained it based on the genetic data of 401 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and 390 healthy subjects. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within ANRIL (rs1333045, rs1333048, rs4977574 and rs10757278), EVI5 (rs6680578, rs10735781 and rs11810217), ACE (rs4359 and rs1799752), MALAT1 (rs619586 and rs3200401), GAS5 (rs2067079 and rs6790), H19 (rs2839698 and rs217727), NINJ2 (rs11833579 and rs3809263), GRM7 (rs6782011 and rs779867), VLA4 (rs1143676), CBLB (rs12487066) and VEGFA (rs3025039 and... 

Migraine is a complex disabling condition which is associated with dysregulation of several pathways particularly those being associated with immune responses. In order to assess contribution of protein inhibitor of activated STAT (PIAS) in the pathogenesis of migraine, we quantified expression levels of PIAS1–PIAS4 genes in the circulation of patients with migraine compared with controls. Expression of PIAS1 was substantially lower in total migraineurs compared with controls (ratio of mean expressions (RME) = 0.18, SE = 0.29, P value < 0.001) and in both male and female migraineurs compared with sex-matched controls. Expression of PIAS2 was lower in migraineurs without aura compared with... 

Protein inhibitors of activated STAT (PIAS) are involved in the regulation of the JAK/STAT signaling pathway and have interactions with NF-κB, p73 and p53. These proteins regulate immune responses; therefore dysregulation in their expression leads to several immune-mediated disorders. In the present study, we examined expression of PIAS1-4 in peripheral blood of patients with acute/chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (AIDP/CIDP) compared with healthy subjects. We demonstrated down-regulation of all PIAS genes in both AIDP and CIDP cases compared with controls. Similarly, comparisons in gender-based groups revealed down-regulation of these gene0s in patients of each... 

The original version of this Article contained an error in the spelling of the author Mohammad Hossein Modarressi, which was incorrectly given as Mohammad‑Hossein Modarresi. The original Article has been corrected. © 2022, The Author(s)  

This study aims to identify genetic causes of familial female infertility characterized by embryonic developmental arrest (EDA) and repeated implantation failure (RIF) with oocyte donation IVF cycle. We used Whole-exome sequencing and Sanger validation to find causative genes in an Iranian consanguineous family that had 3 infertile daughters, 4 fertile daughters, and 2 fertile sons. All patients in this consanguineous family exhibited typical manifestations of unexplained RIF and EDA. Genetic analysis identified a homozygous missense variant (c.G1054C:p.G352R) in exon 13 of the TLE6 gene that cosegregated with the EDA phenotype in an autosomal recessive pattern. Other members of the family,... 

Periodontitis is a common oral disorder leading to tooth loss in both developed and developing regions of the world. This multifactorial condition is related to the abnormal activity of several molecular pathways, among them are oxytocin-related pathways. In this study, we enrolled 26 patients and 28 controls and assessed the expression of four oxytocin-related genes, namely, FOS, ITPR, RCAN1, and RGS2, in circulation and affected tissues of enrolled individuals using real-time PCR. Expression of FOS was downregulated in total periodontitis tissues compared with total control tissues [ratio of mean expression (RME) = 0.23, P-value = 0.03]. Expression of FOS was also lower in total blood... 

Nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) is an important regulator of immune responses and is involved in the pathoetiology of periodontitis. We have measured levels of four NF-κB-related genes, namely CEBPA, CEBPA-DT, FBXL19-AS and DILC in blood and tissue samples of patients with chronic periodontitis compared with controls. Expression of CEBPA-DT was significantly lower in blood of patients compared with controls (Ratio of mean expression (RME) = 0.13, P value = 0.01). This pattern was also seen among male subgroups (RME = 0.10, P value = 0.01). FBXL19-AS was down-regulated in venous blood of total patients compared with controls (RME = 0.03, P value < 0.001) and in patients of both sexes compared... 

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) includes different neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by deficits in social communication, and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests or activities. Based on the importance of early diagnosis for effective therapeutic intervention, several strategies have been employed for detection of the disorder. The artificial neural network (ANN) as a type of machine learning method is a common strategy. In the current study, we extracted genomic data for 487 ASD patients and 455 healthy individuals. All individuals were genotyped in certain single-nucleotide polymorphisms within retinoic acid-related orphan receptor alpha (RORA), gamma-aminobutyric... 

Suppressor of cytokine signalling (SOCS) family comprises a group of proteins that impede JAK/STAT signalling, thus being involved in the pathogenesis of immune-related conditions. In the present work, we aimed at identification of the role of SOCS genes in the pathogenesis of periodontitis through evaluation of their expression levels both in the circulation and in the affected tissues of patients. Thus, we measured expression levels of SOCS1-3 and SOCS5 transcripts in the blood and gingival samples of patients with periodontitis in comparison with control samples obtained during dental crown lengthening. Expressions of SOCS1, SOCS2, SOCS3 and SOCS5 genes were similar between gingival... 

Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) is an acquired immunological disorder. Although the precise pathoetiology of CIDP has not been clarified yet, it is believed that both B and T cells of immune system contribute in this disorder. Based on the importance of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) cluster in the regulation of immune responses, this family of proteins is putative determinants of risk of CIDP. We conducted the current investigation to appraise association between HLA alleles/genotypes/haplotypes and risk of CIDP in Iranian patients. HLA-DQB1*02 allele was significantly more prevalent among cases compared with controls (OR [95% CI] = 4.82 [2.06, 11.3], P value =... 

Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) is an acquired immunological disorder. Although the precise pathoetiology of CIDP has not been clarified yet, it is believed that both B and T cells of immune system contribute in this disorder. Based on the importance of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) cluster in the regulation of immune responses, this family of proteins is putative determinants of risk of CIDP. We conducted the current investigation to appraise association between HLA alleles/genotypes/haplotypes and risk of CIDP in Iranian patients. HLA-DQB1*02 allele was significantly more prevalent among cases compared with controls (OR [95% CI] = 4.82 [2.06, 11.3], P value =...