Sharif Digital Repository

A series of superabsorbent composites were synthesized through graft copolymerization of acrylic acid (AA) onto carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) in the presence of celite powder using N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) as a cross-linking agent and ammonium persulphate (APS) as an initiator. The chemical structure and thermal properties of the composite hydrogels were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy and TGA methods, respectively. Morphology of the samples was examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In free-state, the swelling conditions and hence the related data are not real, because in all their applications the swelling particles of superabsorbent must absorb aqueous solutions while... 

Cognitive functions such as working memory require integrated activity among different brain regions. Notably, entorhinal cortex (EC) activity is associated with the successful working memory task. Olfactory bulb (OB) oscillations are known as rhythms that modulate rhythmic activity in widespread brain regions during cognitive tasks. Since the OB is structurally connected to the EC, we hypothesized that OB could modulate EC activity during working memory performance. Herein, we explored OB–EC functional connectivity during spatial working memory performance by simultaneous recording local field potentials when rats performed a Y-maze task. Our results showed that the coherence of delta,... 

In the present study, we attempt to synthesize and characterize novel CMC-g-poly (acrylic acid-co-2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid)/silica gel composite. Infrared spectroscopy and TGA thermal analysis were carried out to confirm the chemical structure of the hydrogel. Moreover, morphology of the samples was examined by scanning electron microscopy. The effect of reaction variables affecting on water absorbency of the composite and swelling behavior in various solvents, salt, and pH solutions was investigated. Maximum water absorbency of the optimized final product was found to be 4000 g/g in distilled water. The absorbency under load (AUL) of the hydrogel was also determined by... 

Multilateral well is a promising technology in developing oil reservoirs. Because this technology may increase the production rate per well and reduce the costs of field development, it is rapidly replacing the old methods. This study uses a three-dimensional line-source model with direct search methods, including pattern search and genetic algorithms to optimize the well trajectories. This method was applied to several cases, with different forms of wells and reservoirs. In all cases, significant improvement was observed in the production rate. Furthermore, the production enhancement using the optimized well trajectories which have curved-paths is compared to the case with linear well... 

Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D CRT) are two treatment modalities in prostate cancer, which provide acceptable dose distribution in tumor region with sparing the surrounding normal tissues. IMRT is based on inverse planning optimization; in which, intensity of beams is modified by using multileaf collimators and also compensators with optimum shapes in step and shoot (SAS) and compensator-based method, respectively. In the recent study, some important parameters were compared in two IMRT and 3D CRT methods. Prescribed dose was 80 Gy for both IMRT procedures and 70 Gy for 3D CRT. Treatment plans of 15 prostate cancer... 

We have constructed the Koch array factor using decomposition of the array factor and solving it with matrix methods, rather than regular inverse Fourier transform method. With the aid of non-uniform sampling we have made some improvements in the main beam while the array elements are reduced significantly. We have also consider the Fibonnaci Sierpinski gasket  

Eight new chitin derivatives have been synthesized via SN2 reaction of primary and secondary amines with tosylchitin. The products were characterized using FTIR and 1H NMR spectroscopy. A degree of substitution ∼ 1 was achieved through this process. These materials are soluble in water at room temperature, which enable their further applications in the future. © 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA  

Multiphase flows appear in many scientific and engineering applications. On the other hand, there has been a tremendous experimental and numerical investigation trying to understand complex fluid-fluid interfaces better. However, conventional CFD have certain limitations in complicated situations. Fortunately in the past two decades, new approaches, namely SPH and LBM (sometimes called meshless methods) have been developed. Since they are mesoscopic, they have been able to perform much better than conventional CFD. Especially, LBM is becoming more and more popular and has already been divided to many branches  

A source model for secret key generation between terminals is considered. Two users, namely users 1 and 2, at one side communicate with another user, namely user 3, while at the other side via a public channel where three users can observe i.i.d. outputs of correlated sources. Each of users 1 and 2 intends to share a secret key with user 3 where user 1 acts as a wiretapper for user 2 and vice versa. In this model, two situations are considered: communication from users 1 and 2 to user 3 (the forward key strategy) and from user 3 to users 1 and 2 (the backward key strategy). In both situations, the goal is sharing a secret key between user 1 and user 3 while leaking no effective information... 

In this paper, the effect of using an insecure and noiseless feedback channel in increasing secret key rates is investigated. There is a generalized discrete memoryless multiple access channel (GDMMAC) between two transmitters and a receiver where, in addition to the receiver, both of the transmitters receive noisy channel outputs. Furthermore, an insecure and noiseless feedback channel exists from the receiver to the transmitters. Each of the transmitters intends to share a secret key with the receiver while keeping it concealed from the other transmitter. For this setup, an inner bound of the secret key capacity region is derived. For some special cases, the secret key capacity region is... 

New inner and outer bounds on the achievable compression-equivocation rate region for generalised secure data compression with side information are given that do not match in general. In this setup, two senders, Alice and Charlie intend to transmit information to Bob via channels with limited capacity so that he can reliably reconstruct their observations. The eavesdropper, Eve, has access to one of the channels at each instant and is interested in the source of the same channel at the time. Bob and Eve also have their own observations, which are correlated with Alice's and Charlie's observations. In this model, two equivocation and compression rates are defined with respect to the sources... 

A channel model for secret key generation between three terminals is considered. In this model, there is a two-user generalized multiple access channel (MAC) in which, in addition to the receiver, both transmitters receive noisy channel outputs. There is also a one-way public channel from the transmitters to the receiver. In this model, each of the transmitters intends to share a secret key with the receiver using the MAC and the public channel where the transmitters are eavesdroppers with respect to each other. In this setup, the channel outputs at the transmitters are only used for eavesdropping and not as inputs to the encoders. For the secret key rate pair, we derive the inner bound of... 

In this paper we prove a new capacity upper bound for a class of relay channels known as Relay-With-Delay channels. The proposed bound is general and holds for any arbitrary amount of delay. We have shown that the previously introduced bounds can be considered as special cases of our proposed upper bound. The new introduced bound is, in some cases, tighter than the previously established bounds. It is also notable that the proposed bound coincides with the previously known capacity of "Relay-With-Delay" channels. © 2009 IEEE  

In this work the Ghotbi-Vera mean spherical approximation (GV-MSA) model, coupled with two different expressions for the cation-hydrated diameters, was used in predicting the mean ionic activity coefficients (MIAC) of electrolytes for a number of the mixed-solvent and mixed-salt electrolyte solutions at 25 °C. In all cases the cation diameters in solutions changed with concentration of electrolyte while the anion diameters were considered to be constant and equal to the corresponding Pauling diameters. In application of the GV-MSA model to the electrolyte systems, two different expressions were used for concentration dependency of cation-hydrated diameters, i.e., the GV-MSA1 and GV-MSA2... 

Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a chronic inflammatory disease frequently associated with a deficit in learning and memory. Working memory is an important system for decision making and guidance, which depends on interactions between the ventral hippocampus (vHipp) and the prelimbic prefrontal cortex (plPFC). It is still unclear whether AR influences the activity and coupling of these brain areas, which consequently may impair working memory. The current study aimed to examine alterations of the vHipp-plPFC circuit in a rat model of AR. Our results show decreased working memory performance in AR animals, accompanied by a reduction of theta and gamma oscillations in plPFC. Also, AR reduces... 

In this paper, we present our results about simulation of 2D-EOF in Nano/Micro scales porous media using lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) in micro-channel for EOF. The high efficient numerical code use strongly high nonlinear Poisson Boltzmann equation to predicate behavior of EOF in complex geometry. The results are developed with precisely investigation of several effective parameters on permeability of EOF, such as geometry (channel height and number and location of charge), external electric field, thickness of Debye length (ionic concentration), and zeta potential. Our results are in excellent agreement with available analytical results. Our results show that for certain external electric... 

An easy and ecofriendly method for designing double-network (DN) hydrogels based on chitosan and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) with high mechanical performance is described. When covalent bonds in the networks are used as crosslinking agents in the achievement of a higher mechanical strength, the irreversible deformation of these hydrogels after a large force is applied is still one of the most important obstacles. To overcome this problem, we used physical crosslinking for both networks. The mechanical strength, surface morphology, and cytotoxicity of the films were studied by tensile testing, scanning electron microscopy analysis, and an MTT assay. The synthesized chitosan–PVA DN hydrogels... 

A precise heat transfer simulation of a three-dimensional impinging jet porous heat sink is presented and is analyzed from thermodynamics vantage point under local thermal non-equilibrium condition. To increase the computational efficiency of the analysis, pore-scale modeling based on lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is used inside the porous media (at a meso-scale), whilst finite volume method (FVM) is employed around it (at a macro-scale). The effects of the Reynolds number, porous layer thickness, solid/fluid thermal conductivity ratio, and porosity on the critical heat transfer and entropy generation parameters are investigated. Additionally, the relations between viscous entropy... 

A secret key agreement setup between three users is considered in which each pair of them wishes to agree on a secret key hidden from the remaining user. The three users observe i.i.d. outputs of correlated sources and there is a noiseless public channel from each user for communication to the others. In this setup, inner and outer bounds of the secret key capacity region is derived. Moreover, some special cases are obtained in which the inner bound coincides the explicit outer bound. Also a binary-erasure example is presented through which the results are examined  

Three new chromophores based on the triphenylamine (MM, DM, DN) with various novel electron withdrawing anchoring groups have been synthesized for use in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The sensitizers were characterized by 1H and 13C NMR, Mass, UV–Vis, and electrochemical analysis. The HOMO and LUMO electron distributions of the sensitizers were calculated using density functional theory on a B3LYP level for geometry optimization. The DSSC device based on DM dye showed the best photovoltaic performance among MM and DN dyes: maximum monochromatic incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) of 98 %, short circuit current (JSC) of 4.58 mA/cm2, open circuit voltage (VOC) of...