Sharif Digital Repository

The purpose of this research is to explain the surface modification of fabricated polyamide reverse osmosis (RO) membranes using UV-initiated graft polymerization at different irradiation times (15, 30, 60, and 90 s) and various acrylamide concentrations (10, 20, and 30 g L−1). Also, coating of membranes surface with various concentrations of TiO2 nanoparticles (10, 20, 30, and 50 ppm) followed by the same UV irradiation times was investigated. After that, the membranes modification was done by grafting of acrylamide blended with TiO2 nanoparticles via UV irradiation. The characterization of membranes surface properties and their performance were systematically carried out. The results... 

The Zr-based metal-organic framework (MOF, UiO-66) was synthesized solvothermally. The synthesized UiO-66 was activated using different solvents (acetone, chloroform, and ethanol) via two activation methods of centrifugation and Soxhlet extraction over different periods (1–10 days). The crystalline structure and morphology of the synthesized UiO-66s were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen adsorption-desorption, and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) techniques. The adsorption behaviors of the synthesized UiO-66s were then investigated by selecting anionic methyl red (MR) and cationic methylene blue (MB) as the model dyes. It was found that a change in... 

The Zr-based metal-organic framework (MOF, UiO-66) was synthesized solvothermally. The synthesized UiO-66 was activated using different solvents (acetone, chloroform, and ethanol) via two activation methods of centrifugation and Soxhlet extraction over different periods (1–10 days). The crystalline structure and morphology of the synthesized UiO-66s were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen adsorption-desorption, and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) techniques. The adsorption behaviors of the synthesized UiO-66s were then investigated by selecting anionic methyl red (MR) and cationic methylene blue (MB) as the model dyes. It was found that a change in... 

This study concentrates on fabrication of low-cost antifouling membranes by incorporation of alumina in PVC membranes for membrane bioreactor (MBR). PVC based membranes were prepared via phase inversion method at different alumina contents. Pure water flux through the membranes and its antifouling properties in MBR setup at operating pressure of −0.4 bar were studied. The effects of the alumina on the morphology and physical properties of the membranes were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), contact angle, pore size, viscosity, porosity, and mechanical properties. The results showed that the membrane with 3 wt% alumina exhibited excellent... 

Given the growing need for renewable energy and related technologies, researches have shifted to develop low-cost, stable, high-efficiency electrocatalysts in clean energy generation reactions such as water electrolysis. In the present paper, a three-dimensional Fe2TiO5/nitrogen-doped graphene (3D FTO/NG) nanocomposite is prepared using a simple, cheap and fast method, called chemical bath deposition (CBD). Structural and physical characterizations of the prepared electrocatalysts are performed by different methods such as Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Fourier Transform InfraRed spectra (FT-IR), Dynamic Light Scattering... 

Growing demands for clean and renewable energy technologies have sparked broad research on the development of highly efficient and stable non-noble metal electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). In this regard, in the present work a three-dimensional Fe2TiO5/nitrogen-doped graphene (denoted as 3D FTO/NG) hybrid electrocatalyst was synthesized via a facile in-situ process using a hydrothermal method. Structural characterization of the prepared nanocomposite is performed by various techniques e.g. field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy spectra (XPS),... 

In the present work, a series of polysulfone (PSf) mixed-matrix nanofiltration membranes containing highly water stable UiO-66 metal-organic framework (MOF) were prepared via a simple phase inversion technique. At first, UiO-66 particles were synthesized via a solvothermal technique, activated via two various activation methods, including Soxhlet extraction and centrifugation methods. Then their adsorption performance was investigated for adsorption of anionic methyl orange (MO)/methyl red (MR) and cationic methylene blue (MB)/malachite green (MG) dyes from water. The activated UiO-66 particles via the Soxhlet extraction method (named S-UiO-66) showed better performance for dye adsorption... 

In this research, polysulfone (PSf) ultrafiltration (UF) membranes were prepared by a phase inversion method. Surface modification of the PSf membranes was carried out via grafting of acrylic acid as a hydrophilic monomer by free radical graft polymerization initiated by redox reaction. A central composite design (CCD) of response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to design the experiments. The process variables were acrylic acid concentration (CAA), redox system contact time (T1), and acrylic acid polymerization time (T2), while the contact angle (CA), pure water flux (PWF), and flux recovery ratio (FRR) were considered as the responses. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) demonstrated that... 

Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran is the largest lake in Iran and the second largest saltwater lake in the world. The water level in Lake Urmia has decreased dramatically in recent years, due to drought, climate change, and the overuse of water resources for irrigation. This shrinking of the lake may affect local climate conditions, assuming that the lake itself affects the local climate. In this study, we quantified the lake's impact on the local climate by analyzing hourly time series of data on climate variables (temperature, vapor pressure, relative humidity, evaporation, and dewpoint temperature for all seasons, and local lake/land breezes in summer) for the period 1961-2016. For this, we... 

The desire to regenerate and repair native tissues can be immediately performed by multiple tissue engineering procedures. Gelatin and alginate are biocompatible and biodegradable polymers. The addition of ZrO2 nanoparticles (NPs) into the alginate-gelatin hydrogel is considered to improve mechanical and chemical properties. Therefore, nanocomposite hydrogels have been manufactured by the freeze-drying procedure utilizing oxidized alginate-gelatin with ZrO2 NPs as a reinforcement. The fabricated nanocomposite hydrogels were character-ized by FTIR, FESEM, and rheometer. The hydrogels containing a higher ZrO2 NPs content (1.5%) have better mechanical properties than the hydrogels without NPs.... 

Background: The use of functional knee braces for returning to sports or during demanding activities following anterior cruciate ligament rupture is common; yet despite being commonly prescribed, its mechanism of action remains unknown. Objectives: To examine the effect of functional knee braces on mean muscle activity when performing lunge exercises. Study design: Pre-/post-test (within-subject research design). Methods: A total of 10 male participants with unilateral isolated anterior cruciate ligament deficiency participated. Electromyographic activities of six muscles around the knee were recorded during lunge exercises, with and without wearing a custom functional knee brace. The lunge... 

Chemical and electron beam irradiation methods were used to introduce a branched structure into polypropylene and propylene-ethylene copolymer. The chemical method was carried out in an internal mixer using initiator and TMPTMA monomer. In irradiation method, the polymer was irradiated by electron beam under air and nitrogen atmosphere. The branched structure in the modified polymer was confirmed by rheological measurements. While degradation was significant in chemical method, branching occurred efficiently by irradiation under air. Small amount of ethylene in the propylene copolymer promoted branching over degradation  

This paper presents the effects of a non-uniform magnetic field on the hydrodynamic and thermal behavior of ferrofluid flow in a wavy channel by 3D numerical simulation. The wavy surfaces at the top and bottom of the channel are heated by constant heat fluxes. Moreover, the sidewalls are adiabatic. In the wavy section, in the perpendicular direction of the main flow, the magnetic field that linearly varies along the direction of the main flow is applied. The mathematical model that is consistent with the principles of ferrohydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics is used for the problem formulation. The results indicate that the wavy wall enhances the heat transfer rate on the bottom of the... 

An optical amplifier followed by a bistable element has been statistically analyzed before [1]. In this manuscript, output noise analysis represents, then signal to noise ratios (SNR) are calculated either for input or output. It will be shown that noise reduction, can be achieved by a proper selection of parameters  

Control Performance Assessment (CPA) and tuning of PID controllers are studied in this paper. We propose a framework for systematic analysis of the tradeoff between the structural complexity of the controller and its performance. As the measure of the controller performance, an LQG based index is used. The problem is augmented with an additional term which forces sparsity on the complexity of a decentralized PID controller. The desired complexity is controlled via a weighting parameter which determines the cost of each additional element (i.e., P, I, and D terms). The result is a decentralized multivariable PID controller in which the complexity of each loop controller is optimized such that... 

Control Performance Assessment (CPA) and tuning of PID controllers are studied in this paper. We propose a framework for systematic analysis of the tradeoff between the structural complexity of the controller and its performance. As the measure of the controller performance, an LQG based index is used. The problem is augmented with an additional term which forces sparsity on the complexity of a decentralized PID controller. The desired complexity is controlled via a weighting parameter which determines the cost of each additional element (i.e., P, I, and D terms). The result is a decentralized multivariable PID controller in which the complexity of each loop controller is optimized such that... 

One of the distributed solutions for scaling Web Search Engines (WSEs) may be peer-to-peer (P2P) structures. P2P structures are successfully being used in many systems with lower cost than ordinary distributed solutions. However, the fact that they can also be beneficial for large-scale WSEs is still a controversial subject. In this paper, we introduce challenges in using P2P structures to design a large-scale WSE. Considering different types of P2P systems, we introduce possible P2P models for this purpose. Using some quantitative evaluation, we compare these models from different aspects to find out which one is the best in order to construct a large-scale WSE. Our studies indicate that... 

Crack detection is a vital component of structural health monitoring. Several computer vision-based studies have been proposed to conduct crack detection on concrete surfaces, but most cases have difficulties in detecting fine cracks. This study proposes a deep learning-based model for automatic crack detection on the concrete surface. Our proposed model is an encoder–decoder model which uses EfficientNet-B7 as the encoder and U-Net’s modified expansion path as the decoder. To overcome the challenges in the detection of fine cracks, we trained our model with a new training strategy on images extracted from an open-access dataset and achieved a 96.98% F1 score for unseen test data. Moreover,... 

Crack detection is a vital component of structural health monitoring. Several computer vision-based studies have been proposed to conduct crack detection on concrete surfaces, but most cases have difficulties in detecting fine cracks. This study proposes a deep learning-based model for automatic crack detection on the concrete surface. Our proposed model is an encoder–decoder model which uses EfficientNet-B7 as the encoder and U-Net’s modified expansion path as the decoder. To overcome the challenges in the detection of fine cracks, we trained our model with a new training strategy on images extracted from an open-access dataset and achieved a 96.98% F1 score for unseen test data. Moreover,...