Sharif Digital Repository

Imidazolium-based ionic liquids (ILs) have been perceived as a promising candidate for bridging polyaniline (PANI) on well-dispersed carbon nanotubes (CNTs) via formation of IL-stabilized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) dispersion in which outer walls of CNTs, as well as benzene rings of the aniline monomer and the growing polymer, have been potently effective in such procurement. The sulfonated water-soluble PANI-[C16C1im]Cl-MWCNT nanocomposites (SPANI-IL-MWCNTs) are directly deposited on a graphite-based current collector using a simple and cost-effective electrophoretic deposition (EPD) method. The SPANI-IL-MWCNT electrodes exhibit remarkable electrochemical performance compared to... 

Many recent studies show that Augmented Reality (AR) and Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technologies can be used to help people with disabilities. Many of these studies have been performed only in their specialized field. Audio-Visual Speech Recognition (AVSR) is one of the advances in ASR technology that combines audio, video, and facial expressions to capture a narrator's voice. In this paper, we combine AR and AVSR technologies to make a new system to help deaf and hard-of-hearing people. Our proposed system can take a narrator's speech instantly and convert it into a readable text and show the text directly on an AR display. Therefore, in this system, deaf people can read the... 

Recently, many researches show Augmented Reality (AR) and Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) can help people with disabilities. In this paper we implement an innovative system for helping deaf people by combining AR, ASR, and AVSR technologies. This system can instantly take narrator's speech and converts it into readable text and shows it directly on AR display. We show that our system's accuracy becomes over 85 percent on average, by using different ASR engines near using an AVSR engine in different noisy environments. We also show in a survey that more than 90 percent of deaf people on average need such system as assistant in portable devices, near using only text or only sign-language... 

Augmented Reality (AR), Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Text-to-Speech Synthesis (TTS) can be used to help people with disabilities. In this paper, we combine these technologies to make a new system for helping deaf people. This system can take the narrator's speech and convert it into a readable text and show it directly on AR display. To improve the accuracy of the system, we use Audio-Visual Speech Recognition (AVSR) as a backup for the ASR engine in noisy environments. In addition, we use the TTS system to make our system more usable for deaf people. The results of testing the system show that its accuracy is over 85 percent on average in different places. Also, the result of a... 

This paper introduces congestion relief management (CRM) as one of ancillary services in market structure for improving its operation. The CRM maintains the system operation within the security limits and defines the charge, receiving and paying in non-discriminatory methods which are based on how much of congestion is relieved and caused by each participant. The proposed method is based on congestion relief index (CRI) which can be used for selecting the offers. We compare two market-clearing procedures for CRM in terms of only supply side management and economical efficiency of demand side management to avoid transmission congestion in an optimum manner. We also use a zonal-based... 

KMnO4 oxidation combined with polyelectrolyte (K530CF) flocculation was investigated to mitigate membrane fouling in a membrane bioreactor. The optimum dosages of chemical additives in order to enhance the removal of soluble microbial products (SMPs) were determined. This method was able to reduce the concentration of COD in the effluent to 57.1% and 51.1% lower than those in the experiments in the absence of chemical flocculants and in the presence of polyelectrolyte, respectively. NH3-N removal was improved by combining KMnO4 and K530CF. When KMnO4 was used along with polyelectrolyte, the zeta potential was neutralized to a greater extent which resulted in an improvement in the... 

Stability of UiO-66 in 1 M HCl for different exposure times up to 15 days was investigated by employing various characterization techniques such as XRD, FESEM, TEM, TGA, and nitrogen adsorption/desorption. The lower surface area, smaller pore size, and slightly lower thermal stability indicated that the UiO-66 structure experienced a partial breakdown, but could maintain its main structure and showed acceptable stability. In addition, the exposure to the HCl solution added to the missing-linker defects in the structure of UiO-66. The adsorptive performance of HCl-aged UiO-66 nanoparticles towards anionic methyl orange (MO) dye was then evaluated. Compared to as-synthesized UiO-66, maximum... 

Injection locked frequency dividers (ILFD) are used for frequency division to reduce the overall power consumption. By injecting a high frequency signal to an LC oscillator, injecting signal gets synchronous with oscillator output. All ILFDs analysis reports are based on steady state solution when locking is reached. At the same time, it is important to consider transient analysis too. In this paper a simple model is developed to study phase transient analysis when injecting signal is small in amplitude. This model can be used for large signal injection as a good approximation  

A very low power CMOS, 1.5V, 2.5GHz prescaler was designed. Implemented in 0.25u standard CMOS technology, this prescaler can operate up to 3GHz range. The prescaler consists of three delay flip flops (DFF) that work synchronously with RF sinusoidal clock and divides by 4 or 5 according to control signal  

A 5GHz, 1.5 Volt and low power CMOS frequency synthesizer with LC-tuned VCO (voltage controlled oscillator) is presented. The synthesizer consists of an LC-tuned VCO, an injection-lock frequency divider, a very low power prescaler which brings 2.5GHz range frequency to 11 MHz, a phase-frequency detector and charge-pump with improved architecture. Spiral inductors with Q-factor of 9 are used for the LC-tuned 5 GHz VCO. A fixed 2 frequency divider based on injection-locking phenomenon is used to bring 5 GHz VCO frequency to 2.5GHz. Both VCO and injection-locked divider's oscillators are tuned with NMOS varactors with their bodies are grounded, resulting in about 700 MHz tuning range.... 

We use concepts to make distinctions. Blurring these distinctions results in conflations. So, they are commonly seen as vicious. The claim here is that, by contrast, conflations are virtuous because they can do cognitive work. They enrich our conceptual resources. It is not conflation per se that is destructive but the lack of evaluation. Committing a conflation requires two cognitive acts at once. First, keeping things together and, second, appreciating the gap between them. Conflation thus has a family resemblance with notions like analogy and metaphor. Despite their apparent difference, a shared trait is recognizable in this family: the simultaneous maintenance of similarity and... 

Stochastic activity networks (SANs) are a well-known petri net-based formalism used for the performance and dependability modeling of a wide range of systems. On the other hand, the growing complexity of timed systems makes it imperative to apply formal analysis techniques in the early stages of the system's development. Finding a suitable framework for the modeling, evaluation, and verication of these systems is still a great challenge. In this paper, we introduce a new formalism named timed activity networks (TANs), which are based on the activity networks that are the nondeterministic settings of the SANs. The advantages of TANs are 2-fold: 1) allowing the construction of more compact... 

Structural, half-metallic, magneto-optic, and thermoelectric properties of CrTiZ (Z = As, P) half-Heusleres compounds are investigated based on density functional theory. These compounds have mechanical stability in the ferromagnetic state with a high bulk modulus. They are often half-metallic with a large and integer magnetic moment and are very attractive in spintronics, magneto-optics applications. The magnetic moments of CrTiAs and CrTiP were 2.9865 μB and 3.00 μB, respectively, which were attributed to their ferromagnetic phase. Additionally, the positive sign of the phonon branches indicates the dynamic stability of these compounds. Applying both GGA and mBJ approximations, CrTiAs and... 

Natural compounds containing polysaccharide ingredients have been employed as candidates for treatment of skin tissue. Herein, for the first time, electrospinning setup was proposed to fabricate an efficient composite nanofibrous structure of Beta vulgaris (obtained from Beet [Chenopodiaceae or Amaranthaceae]) belonged to polysaccharides and an elastic polymer named nylon 66 for skin tissue engineering. Both prepared scaffolds including noncomposite and composite types were studied by Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, mechanical assay, and contact angle. Scanning electron microscope examinations have approved the uniform and homogeneous... 

In this article, we report on the design and fabrication of wideband high-efficiency linear cross-polarizers operating in transmission mode at millimeter waves. The proposed structures include a metasurface-based analyzer layer consisting of modified double asymmetric split-ring resonator elements. The proposed analyzer layer along with an optimized polarizer layer is integrated into an ultra-thin double-layer printed circuit board. A resonant cut-wire-based metasurface and a non-resonant wire-grid structure are designed as the polarizer layer. It is observed that the cross-polarized transmission coefficient and the polarization conversion ratio can noticeably be enhanced in the double-layer... 

Chitosan was crosslinked with different amount of glutaraldehyde to prepare appropriate hydrogels to be used as drug delivery system. The swelling behavior of freeze-dried hydrogels in aqueous media at different temperature and pHs has been examined. The swelling, porosity and biocompatibility behavior of samples were investigated to check effects of polymer/polymer and polymer/drug interactions on these system characteristics. Obtained experimental results illustrates that with increasing crosslinking agent from 0.068 to 0.30, swelling of the prepared samples degrees from 1200% to 600% and pore diameters change from 100 to 500 μm. To investigate systems biocompatibility in gastric... 

This Regular evaluation and analysis of river quality helps accurate management to reach acceptable quality. In this study, water quality indices (WQI) method applied to evaluate quality of Jajrood River which is one of the main sources of Tehran drinking water. It helps to subsidize management actions in Jajrood watershed. Sampling carried out for 9 years during 2001-2010 in 10 stations along the river in wet and dry stations to identify water quality and the main source of pollution. Results show water quality in all stations classifies as medium according to National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) and water quality index in wet season is better than the corresponding value in dry seasons.... 

In software programs, most of the time, there is a chance of error, even though they are tested carefully. Finding error-related pieces of code is one of the most complicated tasks and it can make incorrect results if done manually. Semi-automated and fully-automated methods have been introduced to overcome this issue. The rapid growth of developing Smart Mobile Applications (SMAs) in recent years, competition among the development teams and many other factors have increased the chance of errors, and hence, the quality of these applications have reduced. There are two approaches to test SMAs in order to reach a high degree of quality: (i) using existing traditional methods and adapting them...