Sharif Digital Repository

Ultrafiltration (UF) membranes were prepared from poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) as main polymer, poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) as additive, and 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) as solvent using Design Expert software for designing the experiments. The membranes were characterized by SEM, contact angle measurement, and atomic force microscopy. The performance of UF membranes was evaluated by pure water flux (PWF) and blue indigo dye particle rejection. In addition, the molecular weight cutoff of UF membranes was determined by poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) rejection. The UF membranes were used as substrates for fabrication of polyamide thin film composite (TFC) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. The... 

An analytical approach for design optimization of multi-stage LNAs with common source topology is developed. This paper reviews and analyses simultaneous noise and input impedance matching in three different topologies including common source amplifier with inductive degeneration, resistive feedback and dual feedback in order to achieve maximum available gain and minimum possible noise figure (NF). A study on multi-stage LNAs is performed to calculate optimum input impedance of each stage for minimum overall NF while considering the gain and NF of that stage in addition to the effect of noise of the following stages. MATLAB was used to calculate the starting point of design optimization in a... 

CO2-laser irradiation was used to modify the surface properties of thin-film composite (TFC) polyamide reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. These membranes were first synthesized via interfacial polymerization of m-phenylenediamine (MPD) monomers and trimesoyl chloride (TMC) over porous polysulfone ultrafiltration support, followed by a CO2-irradiation. AFM, ATR-FTIR, SEM and contact angle measurements were used to characterize the surface properties of these membranes. The ATR-FTIR results indicated that CO2-laser irradiation did not induce any functional groups on the membrane surface. However, it was found that the laser irradiation enhanced the NaCl salt rejection and slightly reduced the... 

Nondestructive estimation of physicochemical properties, post-harvest physiology, and level of ripeness of fruits is essential to their automated harvesting, sorting, and handling. Recent research efforts have identified machine vision systems as a promising noninvasive nondestructive tool for exploring the relationship between physicochemical and appearance characteristics of fruits at various ripening levels. In this regard, the purpose of the current study is to provide an intelligent algorithm for estimating two physical properties including firmness, and soluble solid content (SSC), three chemical properties viz. starch, acidity, and titratable acidity (TA), as well as detection of the... 

Fruit is often bruised during picking, transportation, and packaging, which is an important post-harvest issue especially when dealing with fresh fruit. This paper is aimed at the early, automatic, and non-destructive ternary (three-class) detection and classification of bruises in kiwifruit based on local spatio-spectral near-infrared (NIR) hyperspectral (HSI) imaging. For this purpose, kiwifruit samples were hand-picked under two ripening stages, either one week (7 days) before optimal ripening (unripe) or at the optimal ripening time instant (ripe). A total of 408 kiwi fruit, i.e., 204 kiwifruits for the ripe stage and 204 kiwifruit for the unripe stage, were harvested. For each stage,... 

In recent years, farmers have often mistakenly resorted to overuse of chemical fertilizers to increase crop yield. However, excessive consumption of fertilizers might lead to severe food poisoning. If nutritional deficiencies are detected early, it can help farmers to design better fertigation practices before the problem becomes unsolvable. The aim of this study is to predict the amount of nitrogen (N) content (mg l−1) in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L., var. Super Arshiya-F1) plant leaves using hyperspectral imaging (HSI) techniques and three different regression methods: a hybrid artificial neural networks-particle swarm optimization (ANN-PSO); partial least squares regression (PLSR); and... 

Tomato is an agricultural product of great economic importance because it is one of the most consumed vegetables in the world. The most crucial chemical element for the growth and development of tomato is nitrogen (N). However, incorrect nitrogen usage can alter the quality of tomato fruit, rendering it undesirable to customers. Therefore, the goal of the current study is to investigate the early detection of excess nitrogen application in the leaves of the Royal tomato variety using a non-destructive hyperspectral imaging system. Hyperspectral information in the leaf images at different wavelengths of 400–1100 nm was studied; they were taken from different treatments with normal nitrogen... 

Nitrogen is an essential macronutrient for the growth and development of tomatoes. However, excess nitrogen fertilization can affect the quality of tomato fruit, making it unattractive to consumers. Consequently, the aim of this study is to develop a method for the early detection of excessive nitrogen fertilizer use in Royal tomato by visible and near-infrared spectroscopy. Spectral reflectance values of tomato leaves were captured at wavelengths between 400 and 1100 nm, collected from several treatments after application of normal nitrogen and on the first, second, and third days after application of excess nitrogen. A new method based on convolutional neural networks (CNN) with an... 

The quality of fresh apple fruits is a major concern for consumers and manufacturers. Classification of these fruits according to their ripening stage is one of the most decisive factors in determining their quality. In this regard, the aim of this work is to develop a new method for non-destructive classification of the ripening state of Fuji apples using hyperspectral information in the visible and near-infrared (Vis/NIR) regions. Spectra of 172 apple samples in the range from 450 to 1000 nm were studied, which were selected from four different ripening stages. A convolutional neural network (CNN) model was proposed to perform the classification of the samples. The proposed method was... 

γ-Alumina is used to catalyze the Cannizzaro reaction in the absence of any base under microwave irradiation in high yields. In the case of terephthalaldehyde the reaction is carried out with high selectivity  

Enolizable ketones have been reacted in a one-pot method with aromatic aldehydes, acetyl chloride and acetonitrile at room temperature in the presence of SnCl4/SiO2 to furnish the corresponding β-acetamidoketones in improved yields. Acetylation of an aromatic hydroxyl group was observed while using 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde or vanillin and the corresponding β-acetamidoketones were isolated in an excellent yield  

The boundary layer integral method is used to investigate the development of the turbulent swirling flow at the entrance region of a conical nozzle. The governing equations in the spherical coordinate system are simplified with the boundary layer assumptions and integrated through the boundary layer. The resulting sets of differential equations are then solved by the fourth-order Adams predictor-corrector method. The free vortex and uniform velocity profiles are applied for the tangential and axial velocities at the inlet region, respectively. Due to the lack of experimental data for swirling flows in converging nozzles, the developed model is validated against the numerical simulations. The... 

The governing equations of two-dimensional steady density currents are solved numerically using a finite volume method. The v2̄-f turbulence model, based on standard k - s model, is used for the turbulence closure. In this method, all Reynolds stress equations are replaced with both a transport equation for v2̄ and an elliptic relaxation equation for f, a parameter closely related to the pressure strain redistribution term. The Simple-C procedure is used for pressure-velocity coupling. In addition, Boussinesq's approximation is used to obtain the momentum equation. The computed height of the progressive density current is compared to the measured data in the literature, resulting in good... 

The deposition behavior of fine sediment is an important phenomenon, and yet unclear to engineers concerned about reservoir sedimentation. An elliptic relaxation turbulence model (v2̄ - f model) has been used to simulate the motion of turbid density currents laden whit fine solid particles. During the last few years, the v2̄ - f turbulence model has become increasingly popular due to its ability to account for near-wall damping without use of damping functions. In addition, it has been proved that the v2̄ - f model to be superior to other RANS methods in many fluid flows where complex flow features are present. Due to low Reynolds number turbulence of turbidity current,(its critical Reynolds... 

In this paper, an analytical solution for steady creeping motion of viscoelastic drop falling through a viscous Newtonian fluid is presented. The Oldroyd-B model is used as the constitutive equation. The analytical solutions for both interior and exterior flows are obtained using the perturbation method. Deborah number and capillary numbers are considered as the perturbation parameters. The effect of viscoelastic properties on drop shape and motion are studied in detail. The previous empirical studies indicated that unlike the Newtonian creeping drop in which the drop shape is exactly spherical, a dimpled shape appears in viscoelastic drops. It is shown that the results of the present...