Sharif Digital Repository

Segmentation of the Left ventricle (LV) is a crucial step for quantitative measurements such as area, volume, and ejection fraction. However, the automatic LV segmentation in 2D echocardiographic images is a challenging task due to ill-defined borders, and operator dependence issues (insufficient reproducibility). U-net, which is a well-known architecture in medical image segmentation, addressed this problem through an encoder-decoder path. Despite outstanding overall performance, U-net ignores the contribution of all semantic strengths in the segmentation procedure. In the present study, we have proposed a novel architecture to tackle this drawback. Feature maps in all levels of the decoder... 

In the present research, NiO–SDC (Samarium doped Ceria) nanopowder was synthesized through sol–gel combustion method using citric acid as a reducing agent (fuel) and metal nitrates as an oxidant. The characteristics of the synthesized powder were thoroughly analyzed by DTA/TG, XRD, BET and FESEM/EDX. Tubular gel-casted porous specimens of NiO–SDC (50:50 wt%) composite materials were produced after stabilizing suspensions of composite powder in an aqueous environment by addition of 3 wt% dispersant and 2.5 wt% agar as the gel builder. The effect of Dolapix CE64 as a dispersant, agar as a gel-builder and the amount of solid loadings on the processing and properties of porous ceramics was... 

In this paper, three metal-organic frameworks (Materials of Institut Lavoisier: MILs-100 (Fe)) as porous nanomaterials were synthesized using FeCl3, Fe(NO3)3 and Fe2(SO4)3 and denoted as MIL-100-1, MIL-100-2 and MIL-100-3, respectively. The synthesized MILs-100 (Fe) were characterized by FTIR, SEM, TEM, XRD, UV–vis DRS and zeta potential. Basic Blue 41 (BB41) was used as a model dye to study the photocatalytic dye degradation ability of the synthesized metal organic frameworks. The results showed that the synthesized nanomaterials decolorized BB41. The decolorization kinetics followed first-order kinetic model. The rate constant was 0.0034, 0.0041, 0.0091 and 0.0289 (1/min) for 0.01, 0.02,... 

The present investigation demonstrates the effective removal of Hg(II) ions from aqueous solution by means of thiol-functionalized magnetic nanoparticles (TF-MNPs). After preparation, TF-MNPs have been characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Thermogravimetric (TG) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The XRD and FESEM analyses revealed the presence of magnetic nanoparticles with an average particle size of 15–30 nm. The result of FT-IR analysis confirmed that the magnetite nanoparticles have been successfully functionalized by thiol groups. The particles illustrated enough response... 

In this study the authors present an in-depth study, analysis and discussion on maximum likelihood (ML)-based receiver for a typical spectrally encoded spread-time CDMA in the presence of multiple narrowband interference (NBI) signals in an additive white Gaussian noise channel. Furthermore, the authors demonstrate that by combining useful properties of ML-based receiver and three-level codes, that is, codes with values of -1, 0, +1, the authors can introduce a new strategy in which superior performance with respect to previous receiver structure based on two-level codes, that is, codes with values of -1, +1, can be attained. With the help of an example, the authors drive, first, the... 

The vanillin assay is a spectrophotometric method for anthocyanin determination that is simple, quick and inexpensive. The method is preferred because of its high sensitivity, specificity and simplicity; however, the results of this test are influenced by several factors. Hence, a D-optimal experimental design approach was investigated to simultaneously, without loss of information, optimize five factors that influence the vanillin assay: acid normality, vanillin concentration, temperature, time and acid type. Further optimization with a D-optimal design and response surface analysis (RSM) showed that a second-order polynomial model fit the experimental data appropriately. The optimum... 

In this study, we discuss the postural stability of a nonprehensile manipulation problem, which deals with multibody objects. As a metric for postural stability, we define PRI. Then, the system is posturally stable, if PRI is inside the convex hull of the object-manipulator contact surface. We then discuss that dynamic biped locomotion is a special case of dynamic nonprehensile manipulation in all aspects; we prove that ZMP (zero-moment point) and FRI (zoot rotation indicator) are special cases of PRI (palm rotation indicator). Simulations and experiments corresponding to simple examples support the results