Sharif Digital Repository

A novel technique based on image processing inspired by the simple assumption for the first time to assess the roughness of nanofibrous mats based on grayscale variations is proposed. The height of a nanofibrous mat in different regions of the surface is simulated by grayscale variations in the image while the relation between grayscale and height is obtained as a linear function. The roughness is obtained by measuring height variations in the surface profile. Statistical roughness parameters of nanofibrous mats are also obtained from direct measurement with roughness profilometry and atomic force microscopy (AFM) for comparison of the roughness of nanofibrous mats between direct measurement... 

High-performance wearable electronic devices with the capability of converting mechanical force into electrical energy have been gaining increasing attention for biomedical monitoring applications. We present a novel wearable piezoelectric sensor based on a poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) nanofibrous membrane containing microporous zirconium-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for arterial pulse monitoring. It is shown that the incorporation of 5 wt % of MOF greatly enhances the piezoelectric constant of the polymer fibrous mat by 3.4-fold without significant loss in its flexibility. The nanofibrous composite exhibits a peak-to-peak voltage of 600 mV under an applied force of 5 N, which... 

A novel technique based on image processing inspired by the simple assumption for the first time to assess the roughness of nanofibrous mats based on grayscale variations is proposed. The height of a nanofibrous mat in different regions of the surface is simulated by grayscale variations in the image while the relation between grayscale and height is obtained as a linear function. The roughness is obtained by measuring height variations in the surface profile. Statistical roughness parameters of nanofibrous mats are also obtained from direct measurement with roughness profilometry and atomic force microscopy (AFM) for comparison of the roughness of nanofibrous mats between direct measurement... 

Herein, a magnetic zirconium-based metal-organic framework nanocomposite was synthesized by a simple solvothermal method and used as an adsorbent for the removal of direct and acid dyes from aqueous solution. To enhance its adsorption performance, poly(propyleneimine) dendrimer was used to functionalize the as-synthesized magnetic porous nanocomposite. The dendrimer-functionalized magnetic nanocomposite was characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherms, and vibration sample magnetometer. The obtained results revealed the successful synthesis and functionalization of the... 

Comparative studies between response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural network (ANN) methods to find the effects of electrospinning parameters on the porosity of nanofiber mats is described. The four important electrospinning parameters studied included solution concentration (wt.%), applied voltage (kV), spinning distance (cm) and volume flow rate (mL/h). It was found that the applied voltage and solution concentration are the two critical parameters affecting the porosity of the nanofiber mats. The two approaches were compared for their modeling and optimization capabilities with the modeling capability of RSM showing superiority over ANN, having comparatively lower values of... 

A novel rotary magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) (RMHD) micropump is presented in this paper in order to both benefit exclusive advantages from the MHD micropumps and eliminate the current obstacles in their implementation. Lorentz force, which is the actuation mechanism in RMHD, is used to propel a mercury slug in a circular microchannel in order to suck the working fluid from the inlet and pump it to the outlet. This idea is integrated with a valve which prevents the working fluid from passing through, while allowing the mercury slug to pass, during each pumping loop. The performance of a fabricated RMHD is evaluated, considering parameters such as pressure difference, running duration, electric... 

Fluid control, namely pumping and valving, is a critical factor in the performance of micro-fluidic systems. In recent years a variety of micro-fluidic systems are developed for the purpose of miniaturizing fluid handling, and chemical analysis to develop Lab On a Chip (LOC) technology. The mentioned facts resulted in design and fabrication of a novel hydromagnetic flow controller. The idea behind this device is that magnetic particles, mixed and dispersed in a carrier liquid, can be accumulated in the form of a piston. Depending upon dragging speed of these pistons, which itself is a function of switching time, this device can be used to either increase (pumping) or decrease (valving) the... 

The traditional approach to origin-destination (OD) estimation based on data surveys is highly expensive. Therefore, researchers have attempted to develop reasonable low-cost approaches to estimating the OD vector, such as OD estimation based on traffic sensor data. In this estimation approach, the location problem for the sensors is critical. One type of sensor that can be used for this purpose, on which this paper focuses, is vehicle identification sensors. The information collected by these sensors that can be employed for OD estimation is discussed in this paper. We use data gathered by vehicle identification sensors that include an ID for each vehicle and the time at which the sensor... 

Finding the optimal location for sensors is a key problem in flow estimation. There are several location models that have been developed recently for vehicle identification (ID) sensors. However, these location models cannot be applied to large networks because there are many constraints and integer variables. Based on a property of the location problem for vehicle ID sensors, given the initial vehicle ID sensors that are pre-installed and fixed on the network, this article presents a solution that greatly reduces the size of this location problem. An applied example demonstrates that when 8% of the arcs from a real network that are randomly selected have a vehicle ID sensor, the reductions... 

Finding the optimal location for sensors is a key problem in flow estimation. There are several location models that have been developed recently for vehicle identification (ID) sensors. However, these location models cannot be applied to large networks because there are many constraints and integer variables. Based on a property of the location problem for vehicle ID sensors, given the initial vehicle ID sensors that are pre-installed and fixed on the network, this article presents a solution that greatly reduces the size of this location problem. An applied example demonstrates that when 8% of the arcs from a real network that are randomly selected have a vehicle ID sensor, the reductions... 

A novel technique based on image processing inspired by the simple assumption for the first time to assess the roughness of nanofibrous mats based on grayscale variations is proposed. The height of a nanofibrous mat in different regions of the surface is simulated by grayscale variations in the image while the relation between grayscale and height is obtained as a linear function. The roughness is obtained by measuring height variations in the surface profile. Statistical roughness parameters of nanofibrous mats are also obtained from direct measurement with roughness profilometry and atomic force microscopy (AFM) for comparison of the roughness of nanofibrous mats between direct measurement... 

Due to great commercial application of protease, it is necessary to study kinetic characterization of this enzyme in order to improve design of enzymatic reactors. In this study, mathematical modeling of protease enzyme production kinetics which is derived from Bacillus licheniformis BBRC 100053 was studied (at 37°C, pH 10 after 73 h in stationary phase, and 150 rpm). The aim of the present paper was to determine the best kinetic model and kinetic parameters for production of protease and calculating K i (inhibition constant) of different inhibitors to find the most effective one. The kinetic parameters K m (Michaelis-Menten constant) and V m (maximum rate) were calculated 0.626 mM and... 

The novel idea of the Hydromagnetic Micropump and Flow Controller (HMFC) is used in this paper to construct a laboratory setup capable of bidirectional pumping and controlling the flow in microtubes. A laboratory setup, which contains no moving parts, is integrated with a pressure-driven flow setup to make the presented HMFC device. The device operation is based on controllable motion of magnetic particles, added to the carrier fluid, caused by the magnetic field, produced by solenoids located just next to the microtube. The magnitude of these forces is proportional to the strength and gradient of magnetic field which, in turn, is related to the electrical current and arrangement of the... 

Correct scheduling of the project is the necessary condition for the project success. In traditional models, the activities duration times are deterministic and known. In real world however, accurate calculation of time for performing each activity is not possible and is always faced with uncertainty. In this paper, the duration of each activity is estimated by the experts as linguistic variables and the said variables are represented in fuzzy numbers form using the fuzzy theory. Estimating the project accomplishment duration and determining the project critical path will be possible through resolving a fuzzy linear programming model. For solving model, Fuzzy Critical Path Method Algorithm... 

The significant importance of micro-scaled devices in medicine, lab-on-a-chip, and etc resulted in a vast variety of researches. The idea behind the novel hydro magnetic micro-pump and flow controller is that ferromagnetic particles, mixed and dispersed in a carrier fluid, can be accumulated and retained at specific sites to form pistons in a micro-tube using some external magnetic field sources along the micro-tube. This external magnetic field is related to some solenoids, which are turned on and off alternatively. Depending upon dragging speed of these pistons, which itself is a function of switching time, this device can be used to either increase (pumping) or decrease (valving) the flow... 

In order to deal with the limitations of micro-pumps and micro-valves and meet the advantages of magnetic systems a novel plan is described here. The idea behind the plan is that magnetic particles, mixed and dispersed in a carrier liquid, can be accumulated and retained at specific sites to form pistons in a micro-tube using some external magnetic field sources along the tube. In other words, using some solenoids and switching them on and off, in a specific order and period, causes the desired external magnetic field variation through the tube. Changing the period and the mode of activation and deactivation of the solenoids, which are called switching time and switching mode, respectively,... 

One of the main tools in radar target recognition is high resolution range profile (HRRP). However, it is very sensitive to the aspect angle. One solution to this problem is to assume the consecutive samples of HRRP identically independently distributed (IID) in small frames of aspect angles, an assumption which is not true in reality. However, based on this assumption, some models have been developed to characterize the sequential information contained in the multi-aspect radar echoes. Therefore, they only consider the short dependency between consecutive samples. Here, we propose an alternative model, the segment model, to address the shortcomings of these assumptions. In addition, using a...