Sharif Digital Repository

Control of powered lower limb prostheses has a locomotion mode-dependent structure which demands a pattern recognizer that can classify the current locomotion mode and also detect transitions between them in an appropriate time. In order to achieve this goal, this paper presents a Fuzzy sequential locomotion mode recognition system to classify daily locomotion modes including level- walking, stair climbing, slope walking, standing and sitting using low-cost mechanical sensors. Since these signals have a quasi-periodic nature, using sequential pattern recognition tools, such as Hidden Markov Model(HMM) improves the recognition performance considering they use sequences of information to make... 

Sequential pattern recognition has long been an important topic of soft computing research with a wide area of applications including speech and handwriting recognition. In this paper, the performance of a novel fuzzy sequential pattern recognition tool named “Fuzzy Elastic Matching Machine” has been investigated. This tool overcomes the shortcomings of the HMM including its inflexible mathematical structure and inconsistent mathematical assumptions with imprecise input data. To do so, “Fuzzy Elastic Pattern” was introduced as the basic element of FEMM. It models the elasticity property of input data using fuzzy vectors. A sequential pattern such as a word in speech or a piece of writing is... 

Exercise therapy is considered as one of the main rehabilitation treatments for post-stroke patients, especially by utilizing modern technologies, such as virtual and/or augmented reality. However, in order to design an appropriate exercise program, which prolongs the exercise duration and maximize the patient's improvement, the fatigue status needs to be detected and used for the program adjustment. In the previous fatigue recognition works, only exercises for healthy and athlete subjects have been taken into account. In this paper, fatigue status classification has been accomplished in a rehabilitation exercise for poststroke patients. To do so, the reaching task, as a basic rehabilitation... 

The performance of a polymeric membrane in an ultrafiltration system under the chosen optimum conditions was studied. To achieve this, four real produced waters were dealt with. To find the optimum conditions, Taguchi method was applied. Results showed that PAN350 membrane is a potential candidate for industrial applications for three feeds which contained oil and total organic carbon (TOC) less than 1,500 and 300 ppm, respectively. The values of oil/grease, total suspended solids, and turbidity rejections were approximately 100%. Although TOC could not be entirely removed, the removal values for TOC were acceptable in this study. For the fourth feed due to the values of oil and TOC which... 

Potential applications of the molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) demand physical configurations in different size ranges. Nowadays, research on MIPs is focused on the development of new or improved morphologies, which involves control and modification of the different parameters during the synthesis. In this study, the effect of different synthesis conditions on the particle size and morphology is investigated. Carbamazepine-imprinted polymers were prepared using precipitation polymerization under various conditions such as: the amounts of cross-linker and functional monomers, initiator, porogen, temperature and time of polymerization. We studied the polymerization conditions to obtain... 

The aim of this work was to synthesize molecularly imprinted polymer-poly ethylene glycol-folic acid (MIP-PEG-FA) nanoparticles for use as a controlled release carrier for targeting delivery of paclitaxel (PTX) to cancer cells. MIP nanoparticles were synthesized by a mini-emulsion polymerization technique and then PEG-FA was conjugated to the surface of nanoparticles. Nanoparticles showed high drug loading and encapsulation efficiency, 15.6 ± 0.8 and 100%, respectively. The imprinting efficiency of MIPs was evaluated by binding experiments in human serum. Good selective binding and recognition were found in MIP nanoparticles. In vitro drug release studies showed that MIP-PEG-FA have a... 

Mitochondria is a major regulator of inducing tumor apoptosis and it is as a prime target for chemotherapy. Anticancers need to access specific tumor cells and also pass through different barriers such as outer and inner membranes of mitochondria. Targeted accumulation of paclitaxel (PTX) within the mitochondria was achieved by direct conjugation of PTX with triphenylphosphonium (TPP) as a mitochondrial membrane-permeable cation. PTX-TPP prodrug was synthesized by pH-sensitive ester bond between the hydroxyl function of PTX and the carboxylic function of TPP. This ester bond is only cleaved by the mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase. Prodrug was loaded in the albumin nanoparticles by... 

Chitosan-coated human serum albumin nanoparticles were functionalized by MUC1 aptamer to obtain a selective drug carrier toward cancers overexpressing MUC1. The negative charges of albumin nanoparticles were shifted to positive charges by surface modification with chitosan, and MUC1 was conjugated through an acrylate spacer. The cytotoxicity of targeted nanoparticles was significantly more than non-aptamer nanoparticles, and also the chitosan-coated nanoparticles had more cytotoxic effects than the negatively charged albumin nanoparticles. The IC50 of targeted nanoparticles was 28 and 26% of free paclitaxel in MCF7 and T47D cells at 48 h, respectively. Confocal laser scanning electron...