Sharif Digital Repository

Multicamera vehicle tracking is a necessary part of any video-based intelligent transportation system for extracting different traffic parameters; such as link travel times and origin/destination counts. In many applications, it is needed to locate traffic cameras disjoint from each other to cover a wide area. This paper presents a method for tracking moving vehicles in such camera networks. The proposed method introduces a new method for handling inter-object occlusions; as the most challenging part of the single camera tracking phase. This approach is based on coding the silhouette of moving objects before and after occlusion and separating occluded vehicles by computing the longest common... 

Variational principle is used to derive the nonlinear response of the floating roof of cylindrical liquid storage tanks due to harmonic base excitations. The formulation accounts for nonlinearity due to large deflections of the floating roof. The derived nonlinear governing equation for the sloshing response of the floating roof has a cubic nonlinear stiffness term similar to the well known Duffing equation. It is shown that accounting for large deflections could substantially reduce the wave elevation for near resonance harmonic excitations. Evaluating the response of the nonlinear model for increasing amplitudes of near resonance harmonic excitations gives rise to the appearance of sub and... 

Conventional attractive magnetic force models (proportional to the coil current squared and inversely proportional to the gap squared) cannot simulate the nonlinear responses of magnetic bearings in the presence of electromagnetic losses, flux leakage or saturation of iron. In this paper, based on results from an experimental set-up designed to study magnetic force, a novel parametric model is presented in the form of a nonlinear polynomial with unknown coefficients. The parameters of the proposed model are identified using the weighted residual method. Validations of the model identified were performed by comparing the results in time and frequency domains. The results show a good... 

Vehicle tracking is an essential requirement of any vision based Intelligent Transportation System for extracting different traffic parameters, efficiently. Handling inter-object occlusion is the most challenging part of tracking as a process of finding and following interested objects in a sequence of video frames. In this paper we present a system, based on code-book background model for motion segmentation and Kalman filter for tracking with a new approach for occlusion. This approach separates occluded vehicles based on longest common substring of chain codes. We use this tracking system to estimate some traffic parameters. Experimental results show the efficiency of the method. ©2009... 

The efficiency of an acidizing operation is usually assessed through ordinary well testing methods. These methods are performed only after the acidizing operation, and it is difficult to monitor and evaluate real-time efficiency of acidizing operation. Understanding the performance of the acidizing during the service, by analysis of the acidizing data is a viable approach to this costly and challenging process. The estimation of the skin changes needs an appropriate mathematical method that can handle the main aspects of an acidizing operation. It is tedious to model a real acidizing operation due to the heterogeneity of the reservoir, an unknown reaction rate of acid in reservoir condition,... 

A gas sensor was developed to measure the concentration of binary gas mixtures. This sensor works based on the permeability change of different gas mixtures across the polymeric membranes. Although high values of permeability and selectivity are needed for an ideal separation, the performance of this sensor mainly depends on the permeability factor. Polysulfone and silicone rubber were applied as the membrane base and coat, respectively. Moreover, in contrast to existing polymeric sensors that use hollow fibers, the present sensor is made of flat membranes. This new design is cheaper, smaller, and easier to use in comparison to the hollow fiber polymeric sensors. In order to test the sensor... 

Coronaviruses are a group of envelop viruses which lead to diseases in birds and mammals as well as human. Seven coronaviruses have been discovered in humans that can cause mild to lethal respiratory tract infections. HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43, HCoV-NL63, and HCoV-HKU1 are the low-risk members of this family and the reason for some common colds. Besides, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and newly identified SARS-CoV-2, which is also known as 2019-nCoV, are the more dangerous viruses. Due to the rapid spread of this novel coronavirus and its related disease, COVID-19, a reliable, simple, fast, and low-cost detection method is necessary for patient diagnosis and tracking worldwide. Human coronaviruses detection... 

Coronaviruses are a group of envelop viruses which lead to diseases in birds and mammals as well as human. Seven coronaviruses have been discovered in humans that can cause mild to lethal respiratory tract infections. HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43, HCoV-NL63, and HCoV-HKU1 are the low-risk members of this family and the reason for some common colds. Besides, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and newly identified SARS-CoV-2, which is also known as 2019-nCoV, are the more dangerous viruses. Due to the rapid spread of this novel coronavirus and its related disease, COVID-19, a reliable, simple, fast, and low-cost detection method is necessary for patient diagnosis and tracking worldwide. Human coronaviruses detection... 

Applying integrated variational principles on fluid and deck plate to the large deflection analysis of floating roofs, this paper investigates the significance of the flexural and membrane components in the formulations of the deck plate. Integrated variational principles facilitate the treatment of the compatibility of deformation between floating roof and supporting liquid. Analysis results show that different assumptions about deck plate formulation commonly used in the literature, results in considerably different deflection and stress patterns on the floating roof. The results show that modeling of the deck plate as a flexural element rather than the membrane, by eliminating the need... 

Injectivity decline due to mineral scale deposition in near wellbore region of water injection wells is one of the main challenging issues and have been widely reported in the literature. One of the main mechanisms of injectivity loss is incompatibility between injected and formation waters that may result in inorganic scale precipitation and subsequent deposition in porous media. Reliable reactive flow models to predict type and amount of scale along with permeability decline estimation allow planning and risk management of water flood projects. In this paper, we present a coupled geochemical and hydrodynamic model to simulate the scale precipitation and deposition of mineral scales in... 

Petroleum industry is moving toward enhancing oil recovery methods, especially water-based methods, including low salinity and smart water flooding which water with an optimized composition is injected into the reservoir for improving oil recovery. Injection of water into the target formation is also a common operation in geothermal energy production. As the water is being injected into the reservoir, pressure and temperature change along the well column and cause scale formation. Mineral scale precipitation and deposition is a common problem for water injection wells which reduces the effective radius of the wellbore and affects the injection efficiency. In this paper, modeling scale... 

Low-frequency O 2 plasma was used to modify the surface of polysulfone gas-separation membranes. The effects of the treatment time and plasma power input on the membranes were also investigated. Pure CO 2 and CH 4 gas-permeation measurements were performed before and after plasma treatment. The results show the increase of permeability of the treated membranes due to surface ablation and surface polarization up to 5.63 and 68.80 gas-permeation units for CH 4 and CO 2, respectively, whereas, the CO 2/CH 4 selectivity of the treated membranes varied from 7.7 to 45.3, depending on the treatment conditions. Attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy determined the... 

Purpose: Tackling the challenges of water scarcity requires comprehensive management according to financial, environmental and social issues. This paper aims to develop a planning approach for systematic decision-making and pay attention to uncertainties in water demand management and supply investment. Design/methodology/approach: This study presents a multiobjective optimization model to manage water resources based on the balance of supply and demand. The objectives of the model include economic, social and environmental (sustainable development) factors. The model achieves an optimal urban water portfolio by using a scenario tree. Findings: The mathematical goal programming (GP) in a... 

Purpose: Tackling the challenges of water scarcity requires comprehensive management according to financial, environmental and social issues. This paper aims to develop a planning approach for systematic decision-making and pay attention to uncertainties in water demand management and supply investment. Design/methodology/approach: This study presents a multiobjective optimization model to manage water resources based on the balance of supply and demand. The objectives of the model include economic, social and environmental (sustainable development) factors. The model achieves an optimal urban water portfolio by using a scenario tree. Findings: The mathematical goal programming (GP) in a... 

We study diffusive heterogeneous predator-prey system with Holling type-II functional response in the presence of harvesting in prey equation i.e.{-δu=λu-a(x)u2-buv1+mu-ch(x)in Ω,-δv=μv-v2+duv1+muin Ω,∂νu=∂νv=0on ∂Ω, where Ω is a smooth bounded region in RN and a(x) is a nonnegative continuous function on Ω, with Ω0 a region such that Ω⊂Ω and a(x)>0 on Ω\u03a90. We show that in the case of weak prey growth rate, i.e. λ less than the first eigenvalue of -δ in Ω0, the system has a positive solution for the values of μ in a bounded interval and c>0 sufficiently small. We also investigate the multiplicity of positive solutions in this case. When the prey growth rate is strong, we will show that... 

From a thermal point of view, zeotropic mixtures are likely to be more efficient than azeotropic fluids in low-temperature power cycles for reduction in exergy destruction occurring during heat absorption/rejection processes due to their suitable boiling characteristics. In this study, comprehensive energetic and exergetic analyses are mathematically performed for an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) system employing a potential binary zeotropic working fluid, namely R717/water. For this purpose, initially mass, energy, and exergy balance equations are derived. With regard to the similarity in molar mass of R717 (17.03 g mol−1) and water (18.01 g mol−1), there is no need to alter the size of the... 

From a thermal point of view, zeotropic mixtures are likely to be more efficient than azeotropic fluids in low-temperature power cycles for reduction in exergy destruction occurring during heat absorption/rejection processes due to their suitable boiling characteristics. In this study, comprehensive energetic and exergetic analyses are mathematically performed for an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) system employing a potential binary zeotropic working fluid, namely R717/water. For this purpose, initially mass, energy, and exergy balance equations are derived. With regard to the similarity in molar mass of R717 (17.03 g mol −1 ) and water (18.01 g mol −1 ), there is no need to alter the size of... 

Scale precipitation due to the mixing of incompatible injected water with formation brine and its subsequent deposition in porous media is an unpleasant phenomenon in water injection projects that can lead to severe injectivity and productivity decline. As a result of the complexity of geochemical reactions, modelling scale precipitation and deposition is a challenge. This paper presents a coupled geochemical and fluid flow model to simulate reactive flow in porous media which models pressure difference increase resulting from scale formation during water injection into porous media. To simulate chemical reactions during scale formation and subsequent rock permeability decline, PHREEQC... 

Molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was synthesized through the coprecipitation method on the graphene oxide anchored pencil lead as a substrate for the first time and applied as an efficient sorbent for pseudo stir bar sorptive extraction of nabumetone. The extracted analyte was determined by a novel spectrophotometric method based on the aggregation of silicate sol-gel stabilized silver nanoparticles in the presence of the analyte. The synthesized polymer was characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy. Optimization of important parameters affecting the extraction efficiency was done using central composite design whereas the... 

A sensitive fluorometric assay is described for the direct determination of the antibiotic sulfadiazine. Silver nanoparticles placed on graphene quantum dots (Ag NP-GQDs) were synthesized by reduction of AgNO3 with sodium borohydride in the presence of GQDs. The growth of Ag NPs on the surface of the GQDs causes quenching of the blue fluorescence of the GQDs with an emission maximum at 470 nm by surface-enhanced energy transfer. If sulfadiazine is added, it interacts with Ag NPs and fluorescence is restored. Under optimal conditions, the fluorescence increases linearly in the sulfadiazine concentration range of 0.04–22.0 μM. The detection limit is 10 nM with relative standard deviations of...