Sharif Digital Repository

This study was designed to compare one-step, two-step and spent medium bioleaching of spent catalyst by adapted Aspergillus niger in batch cultures. Aspergillus niger, which was adapted to heavy metal ions, Ni, Mo, Fe, and W, was grown in medium containing up to 5% (w/v) of spent catalyst. The main lixiviant in bioleaching was gluconic acid, which was produced at all pulp densities in the one-step bioleaching process. Gluconic acid was also produced in the two-step bioleaching process when the spent catalyst was present at pulp densities greater than 1% (w/v). In the spent medium leaching, however, the primary agent was citric acid. The pulp density of the spent catalyst was varied, and this... 

A novel recognition method for selective determination of the hyoscine N-Butyl bromide (HBB), an antispasmodic agent for smooth muscles, was devised using extended gate field-effect transistor (EG-FET) as transducing unit. For this purpose a PVC membrane, containing hyoscine n-butyl-tetraphenyl borate ion-pair as recognition component, was coated on Ag/AgCl wire, which was connected to the extended metal gate. In optimal conditions, the linear range for HBB was 10-8-10-5 molL−1 with limit of detection 1.7×10-9 molL-1. The proposed sensor was applied in real sample, it showed fast response with high accuracy, and therefore it could be used as HPLC detector in the pharmaceutical samples in... 

Lake Urmia, which was once the second-largest saline lake in the world, has been shrinking dramatically. Moreover, Lake Urmia has become supersaturated with total salinity averaging more than 350 g/l. Salt precipitation and dissolved materials brought by inflowing rivers have formed a layer of sediment with low hydraulic conductivity on the lakebed. Considering the flat bathymetry of Lake Urmia, we conducted a series of numerical simulation scenarios to study the groundwater flow pattern in the vicinity of the hypersaline Lake Urmia using COMSOL Multiphysics®. In the first step, we performed the simulations in steady-state conditions. Secondly, we simulated the lake level fall in 10 years at... 

Purpose: Drowsy driving accounts for many accidents and has attracted substantial research attention in recent years. Electroencephalography (EEG) signals are shown to be a reliable measure for the early detection of drowsiness. Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive study showing the applicability of drowsiness detection systems with EEG signals. In this research, we targeted the studies under the category of drowsiness detection, which adopted an EEG-based approach, to inspect the applicability of these systems from different aspects. Materials and Methods: We included documented studies that utilized clinical devices and consumer-grade EEG headsets for detection of drowsiness and... 

In this study, nanostructured biodegradable pure Zn, Zn-4 wt. % Mn and Zn-24 wt % Mn alloys were produced by 20 h mechanical alloying and consequent cold pressing and sintering. Structural evolutions were investigated using the X-ray diffraction technique. Also, the microstructure was characterized by scanning electron microscopy. The effects of alloy composition on density, mechanical properties, corrosion behavior in Hank's solution, cell viability and cell attachment were investigated. Crystallite size of the synthesized alloys after 20 h of milling reached to less than 40 nm and remained less than 80 nm after consolidation and sintering for 1 h. Alloys contain MnZn13 as second phase...