Sharif Digital Repository

Needle insertion simulation and planning systems (SPSs) will play an important role in diminishing inappropriate insertions into soft tissues and resultant complications. Difficulties in SPS development are due in large part to the computational requirements of the extensive calculations in finite element (FE) models of tissue. For clinical feasibility, the computational speed of SPSs must be improved. At the same time, a realistic model of tissue properties that reflects large and velocity-dependent deformations must be employed. The purpose of this study is to address the aforementioned difficulties by presenting a cost-effective SPS platform for needle insertions into the liver. The study... 

The knowledge of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) has expanded considerably in recent years. They are multiparameter and complex systems that work only if various parameters are tuned simultaneously. This makes it difficult to target to a single parameter to improve the efficiency. There is a wealth of knowledge concerning different DSC structures and characteristics. In this review, the present knowledge and recent achievements are surveyed with emphasis on the more promising cell materials and designs  

The development of cheaper electrocatalysts for fuel cells is an important research area. This work proposes a new, simpler and low-cost approach to develop nanostructured silver electrocatalysts by using natural cellulose as a template. Silver was deposited by reduction of Ag complexes on the surface of cellulose fibers, followed by heat removal of the template to create self-standing nanostructured silver fibers (NSSFs). X-Ray diffraction (XRD) showed fcc silver phase and X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) demonstrated that the surface was partially oxidized. The morphology of the fibers consisted of 50 nm nanoparticles as the building blocks, and they possessed a specific surface area... 

This paper presents a new robust composite nonlinear feedback control law for accurate, smooth, and fast regulation in the presence of parameter uncertainties, external disturbances, and input saturation for a class of spacecraft rendezvous systems. The novel proposed method consists of the original composite nonlinear feedback part for good transient performance plus a nonlinear disturbance rejection part for reducing the steady-state error stemming from variable disturbances and simultaneously producing feasible control input. The nonlinear disturbance rejection relies on sliding-mode observer for disturbance estimation. Closed-loop system stability has been proved with the Lyapunov... 

This paper presents a new robust composite nonlinear feedback control law for accurate, smooth, and fast regulation in the presence of parameter uncertainties, external disturbances, and input saturation for a class of spacecraft rendezvous systems. The novel proposed method consists of the original composite nonlinear feedback part for good transient performance plus a nonlinear disturbance rejection part for reducing the steady-state error stemming from variable disturbances and simultaneously producing feasible control input. The nonlinear disturbance rejection relies on sliding-mode observer for disturbance estimation. Closed-loop system stability has been proved with the Lyapunov... 

The performance of perturbation method in nonlinear analyses of plates subjected to mechanical, thermal, and thermo-mechanical loadings is investigated. To this end, cylindrical bending of FG plates with clamped and simply-supported edges is considered. The governing equations of Mindlin's first-order shear deformation theory with von Kármán's geometric nonlinearity are solved using one- and two-parameter perturbation methods and the results are compared with the results of an analytical solution. The material properties are assumed to vary continuously through the thickness of the plate according to a power-law distribution of the volume fraction of the constituents. It is shown that the... 

The performance of perturbation method in nonlinear analyses of plates subjected to mechanical, thermal, and thermo-mechanical loadings is investigated. To this end, cylindrical bending of FG plates with clamped and simply-supported edges is considered. The governing equations of Mindlin's first-order shear deformation theory with von Kármán's geometric nonlinearity are solved using one- and two-parameter perturbation methods and the results are compared with the results of an analytical solution. The material properties are assumed to vary continuously through the thickness of the plate according to a power-law distribution of the volume fraction of the constituents. It is shown that the... 

Flow mediated dilation (FMD) is a non-invasive method for endothelial function assessment providing an index extracted from ultrasonic B-mode images. Although utilized in the research community, the difficulty of its application and high cost of ultrasonic devices prevent it from being widely used in clinical settings. In this study we show that substituting the ultrasonic device with more easily handled and low cost photoplethysmography and electrocardiography is possible. We introduce new indices based on the photoplethysmogram (PPG) and electrocardiogram (ECG) and show that they are correlated with the ultrasound-based FMD Index. To this end, a conventional ultrasound FMD test was carried... 

In this paper, we consider a broadband secondary transmitter-receiver pair which interferes with N narrowband primary users and study the effect of cognition and cooperation on the maximum stable throughput. In our study we focus on four transmission protocols as well as two channel types, i.e., flat fading and frequency selective fading. In the cooperative protocols, the broadband transmitter relays the packets of the primary users which have not correctly decoded at the primary receiver. The analysis includes random packet arrivals at the transmitters which may impact on the maximum stable throughput. Moreover, sensing errors at the secondary user are considered. In this paper, we derive... 

Background: De novo drug discovery is a time-consuming and expensive process. Nowadays, drug repositioning is utilized as a common strategy to discover a new drug indication for existing drugs. This strategy is mostly used in cases with a limited number of candidate pairs of drugs and diseases. In other words, they are not scalable to a large number of drugs and diseases. Most of the in-silico methods mainly focus on linear approaches while non-linear models are still scarce for new indication predictions. Therefore, applying non-linear computational approaches can offer an opportunity to predict possible drug repositioning candidates. Results: In this study, we present a non-linear method... 

In this paper, we study a variation of the equations of a chemotaxis kinetic model and investigate it in one dimension. In fact, we use fractional diffusion for the chemoattractant in the Othmar-Dunbar-Alt system (Othmer in J Math Biol 26(3):263-298, 1988). This version was exhibited in Calvez in Amer Math Soc, pp 45-62, 2007 for the macroscopic well-known Keller-Segel model in all space dimensions. These two macroscopic and kinetic models are related as mentioned in Bournaveas, Ann Inst H Poincaré Anal Non Linéaire, 26(5):1871-1895, 2009, Chalub, Math Models Methods Appl Sci, 16(7 suppl):1173-1197, 2006, Chalub, Monatsh Math, 142(1-2):123-141, 2004, Chalub, Port Math (NS), 63(2):227-250,... 

The bioavailability of drugs can be improved by regulating the structural properties, particularly lipoid systems, such as niosomes, can increase cellular uptake. Herein, we optimized double emulsion and niosomal formulations for encapsulating anthocyanin-rich black carrot extract. Nanoparticles obtained by selected formulation were characterized in terms of morphology, particle size, drug encapsulation efficiency, in vitro release and cytotoxicity. The optimum conditions for niosomal formulation were elicited as 30 mg of cholesterol, 150 mg of Tween 20 and feeding time of 1 min at a stirring rate of 900 rpm yielding the lowest average particle size of 130 nm. In vitro release data showed... 

In this study, the corrosion behaviour of Ni-Co alloys with low Co content, electroplated on steel substrate in sulphate bath, was investigated. The morphology of coatings was studied by optical and SEM microscopy. The corrosion products were analyzed using EDX. The results showed that Ni-1%Co coatings had a better corrosion resistance 0.30, 0.92 and 3.75 mpy for atmospheric, salt spray and polarization tests, respectively. These are 0.41, 1.20 and 5.40 mpy for pure nickel coatings that indicate the least corrosion resistance. Surface analysis revealed the presence of oxides, sulphides and chlorides in corrosion products  

The flight of unmanned aerial vehicles is often associated with model uncertainties, measurement noises, and environmental disturbances such as wind gust. To mitigate these challenges, the accurate estimation of states is vital. Moreover, the wind model and its parameters should also be estimated and compensated during the flight. In this paper, a multiple model filter is implemented for this purpose. To investigate the performance of the multiple model filter, three different models including constant wind, '1-cosine' model and wind shear model are considered. The multiple model filter utilizes three extended Kalman filter to simultaneously estimate the model of wind, the parameters of the... 

In this paper, a new nonlinear robust adaptive impedance controller is addressed for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) equipped with a robot manipulator that physically interacts with environment. A UAV equipped with a robot manipulator is a novel system that can perform different tasks instead of human being in dangerous and/or inaccessible environments. The objective of the proposed robust adaptive controller is control of the UAV and its robotic manipulators end-effector impedance in Cartesian space in order to have a stable physical interaction with environment. The proposed controller is robust against parametric uncertainties in the nonlinear dynamics model of the UAV and the robot... 

A new method for fabrication of silver nano-islands on glass fibers using a top-down process is introduced. A thin layer of silver chemically coated on the surface of the glass fibers evolves into silver islands by heat treatment. The effect of the concentration of the initial solution and the temperature were investigated. Segregation was more clearly observed for lower solution concentrations and higher temperatures. The temperature of 500 °C was found optimum where separated islands form. At higher temperatures, the coagulation and burial of silver islands occur. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and diffused reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) were...