Sharif Digital Repository

The unique properties of NiTi alloy, such as its shape memory effect, super-elasticity and biocompatibility, make it ideal material for various applications such as aerospace, micro-electronics and medical device. In order to meet the requirement of increasing applications, great attention has been given to joining of this material to itself and to other materials during past few years. Laser welding has been known as a suitable joining technique for NiTi shape memory alloy. Hence, in this work, a comparative study on laser welding of NiTi wire to itself and to AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel wire has been made. Microstructures, mechanical properties and fracture morphologies of the... 

TixSi1-xO2 compound thin-film systems were deposited by reactive RF magnetron co-sputtering technique. The effect of Ti concentration on the hydrophilicity of TixSi1-xO2 compound thin films was studied and it was shown that the films with Ti0.6Si0.4O2 composition possess the best hydrophilic property among all the grown samples. Surface ratio and average roughness of the thin films were measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Surface chemical states and stoichiometry of the films were determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In addition, XPS revealed that the amount of Ti-O-Si bonds in nanometer depth from the surface of the Ti0.6Si0.4O2 films was the maximum, which resulted... 

The unique properties of NiTi alloy, such as its shape memory effect, super-elasticity and biocompatibility, make it ideal material for various applications such as aerospace, micro-electronics and medical device. In order to meet the requirement of increasing applications, great attention has been given to joining of this material to itself and to other materials during past few years. Laser welding has been known as a suitable joining technique for NiTi shape memory alloy. Hence, in this work, a comparative study on laser welding of NiTi wire to itself and to AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel wire has been made. Microstructures, mechanical properties and fracture morphologies of the... 

Effects of post weld heat treatment (PWHT) on mechanical properties and corrosion behavior of NiTi shape memory wire, laser welded to the 304 stainless steel wire were investigated. The results showed that PWHT at 200 °C increased corrosion resistance and tensile strength of the joint up to ~1.8 times that of the as-weld joint, with no heat treatment. On the contrary, precipitation of neoteric intermetallic compounds like Fe2Ti, Cr2Ti, FeNi, Ni3Ti, and Ti2Ni in the welded region deteriorated these properties, when PWHT was conducted at 400 °C. Due to the vital effects of the PWHT performed after the laser welding, careful control of the PWHT temperature was found to be a prerequisite for... 

The present paper reports the effects of Nd:YAG laser welding on the microstructure, phase transformation, cyclic deformation behavior, and corrosion resistance of Ti-55 wt.% Ni wire. The results showed that the laser welding altered the microstructure of the weld metal which mainly composed of columnar dendrites grown epitaxially from the fusion line. DSC results indicated that the onset of the transformation temperatures of the weld metal differed from that of the base metal. Cyclic stress-strain behavior of laser-welded NiTi wire was comparable to the as-received material; while a little reduction in the pseudo-elastic property was noted. The weld metal exhibited higher corrosion... 

The aim of this review is to cover advances in noble metal nanoparticle (MNP)-based biosensors and to outline the principles and main functions of MNPs in different classes of biosensors according to the transduction methods employed. The important biorecognition elements are enzymes, antibodies, aptamers, DNA sequences, and whole cells. The main readouts are electrochemical (amperometric and voltametric), optical (surface plasmon resonance, colorimetric, chemiluminescence, photoelectrochemical, etc.) and piezoelectric. MNPs have received attention for applications in biosensing due to their fascinating properties. These properties include a large surface area that enhances biorecognizers... 

Nanotechnology has begun to play a remarkable role in various fields of science and technology. In biomedical applications, nanoparticles have opened new horizons, especially for biosensing, targeted delivery of therapeutics, and so forth. Among drug delivery systems (DDSs), smart nanocarriers that respond to specific stimuli in their environment represent a growing field. Nanoplatforms that can be activated by an external application of light can be used for a wide variety of photoactivated therapies, especially light-triggered DDSs, relying on photoisomerization, photo-cross-linking/un-cross-linking, photoreduction, and so forth. In addition, light activation has potential in photodynamic... 

The seismic behavior of pile-supported systems has been an active area of research over the past decades. However, focus has mostly been on evaluating the seismic response of structures embedded in either dry or fully saturated soil conditions. In this study, series of dynamic centrifuge tests were conducted to investigate the effects of soil's degree of saturation on the seismic behavior of pile-supported superstructures. The scaled physical model tests were carried out on two distinct pile-mass systems embedded in uniform sand layers. A steady state infiltration technique was used to control matric suction profiles in the sand layer prior to shaking. The obtained results from these... 

Background: Smart stimulus-responsive nanocarriers represent a rapidly growing class of drug-delivery systems for cancer and other diseases. Objective: The alterations of redox potential between the intracellular environment and the extracellular space have been widely utilized as a trigger for delivery of therapeutic agents by smart stimulus-responsive nanocarriers. We set out to review the scientific literature. Method: Published papers between 1980 and the present day were surveyed. Results: The advantages of redox-activated smart delivery of drugs, genes, and imaging agents include: the amplitude of the redox-responsive signal; the simple chemical features needed to trigger the... 

Neural tissue engineering aims at developing novel approaches for the treatment of diseases of the nervous system, by providing a permissive environment for the growth and differentiation of neural cells. Three-dimensional (3D) cell culture systems provide a closer biomimetic environment, and promote better cell differentiation and improved cell function, than could be achieved by conventional two-dimensional (2D) culture systems. With the recent advances in the discovery and introduction of different types of stem cells for tissue engineering, microfluidic platforms have provided an improved microenvironment for the 3D-culture of stem cells. Microfluidic systems can provide more precise... 

Introduction: One of the biggest impacts that the nanotechnology has made on medicine and biology, has been in the area of drug delivery systems (DDSs). Many drugs suffer from serious problems concerning insolubility, instability in biological environments, poor uptake into cells and tissues, sub-optimal selectivity for targets and unwanted side effects. Nanocarriers can be designed as DDSs to overcome many of these drawbacks. One of the most versatile building blocks to prepare these nanocarriers is the ubiquitous, readily available and inexpensive protein, serum albumin. Areas covered: This review covers the use of different types of albumin (human, bovine, rat, and chicken egg) to prepare... 

Introduction: It is 23 years since carbon allotrope known as carbon nanotubes (CNT) was discovered by Iijima, who described them as "rolled graphite sheets inserted into each other". Since then, CNTs have been studied in nanoelectronic devices. However, CNTs also possess the versatility to act as drug- and gene-delivery vehicles.Areas covered: This review covers the synthesis, purification and functionalization of CNTs. Arc discharge, laser ablation and chemical vapor deposition are the principle synthesis methods. Non-covalent functionalization relies on attachment of biomolecules by coating the CNT with surfactants, synthetic polymers and biopolymers. Covalent functionalization often... 

New achievements in the realm of nanoscience and innovative techniques of nanomedicine have moved micro/nanoparticles (MNPs) to the point of becoming actually useful for practical applications in the near future. Various differences between the extracellular and intracellular environments of cancerous and normal cells and the particular characteristics of tumors such as physicochemical properties, neovasculature, elasticity, surface electrical charge, and pH have motivated the design and fabrication of inventive "smart" MNPs for stimulus-responsive controlled drug release. These novel MNPs can be tailored to be responsive to pH variations, redox potential, enzymatic activation, thermal... 

In this paper we consider a cooperative communication systems over Rayleigh fading channels. The system utilizes a combination of incremental and selective decode-and-forward (ISDF) relaying protocols. The symbol error rate (SER) of M-PSK modulation for the ISDF protocol is derived. Using an approximation of the SER expression, the optimal power allocation is investigated. In order to reduce the complexity of the receiver, we used a modified version of the ISDF protocol which does not use the storage or retransmission of the first phase signal. We also derived optimal power allocation coefficient for modified ISDF. It has been noted that for the optimal power allocation in the ISDF protocol,... 

In this paper we consider a relaying communication system over Rician fading channels. In this system we assume simple Incremental-Selective Decode-and-Forward (ISDF) protocol, which is jointly combining incremental and selective DF relaying protocols. In this protocol, storage or retransmission of the first phase signal are not allowed. We analyze the symbol error rate (SER) performance of the recommended protocol with M-PSK modulation. We evaluate the performance of the protocol in the frequency nonselective slow Rician fading channels. Using the approximation of the SER expression, the optimal power allocation is investigated. Our results show that at least 50% of total power must be used... 

The catalytic activity of potassium salts of phthalimide (PPI) and succinimide (PSI), as organonucleophilic catalysts, has been investigated for the cyclotrimerization of isocyanates under solvent-free conditions. PPI showed better catalytic activity in comparison with PSI. Diverse and challenging isocyanates afforded the respective symmetrical isocyanurates in good to quantitative yields in an atom economic reaction without any phase transfer catalyst. © 2005 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd  

Combination of sodium saccharin and tetrabutylammonium iodide as a novel anionic catalyst system promotes selectively the trimerization of isocyanates to give symmetrical isocyanurates under solvent-free conditions. © Springer-Verlag 2004  

Chatter suppression is of great importance in machining processes for achieving more material removal rate, high precision and surface quality. In this paper, an H∞ control algorithm is proposed for chatter suppression in the presence of tool wear and parameter uncertainties. Orthogonal turning process is modelled as a single degree of freedom model that includes the effect of tool flank wear. Control input of the system is the force provided by a piezo-actuator.The turning process model includes the uncertainties in cutting velocity, tool wear and dynamic model parameters. Using the μ-synthesis technique, an H∞ optimal controller is designed based on a DK-iteration algorithm. The... 

Chatter suppression is an important topic in any type of machining process. In this paper, orthogonal cutting process is modeled as a single degree of freedom dynamic system. A nonlinear delay differential equation is presented that models flank wear of the tool. Uncertainties in cutting velocity, tool wear size and parameters of the dynamic model are included in the model of cutting process. The force provided by a piezo-actuator is taken as the control input of the system. A sliding mode control scheme is used and an effective control law is derived which suppresses the chatter vibration. Results for two distinct cases of a sharp tool and a worn tool are presented and compared which shows... 

Chatter suppression is an important topic in any type of machining process. In this paper, orthogonal cutting process is modeled as a single degree of freedom dynamic system. A nonlinear delay differential equation is presented that models flank wear of the tool. Uncertainties in cutting velocity, tool wear size and parameters of the dynamic model are included in the model of cutting process. The force provided by a piezo-actuator is taken as the control input of the system. A sliding mode control scheme is used and an effective control law is derived which suppresses the chatter vibration. Results for two distinct cases of a sharp tool and a worn tool are presented and compared which shows...