Sharif Digital Repository

Concentration procedures have always been implemented when trace analysis of compounds in real matrices is contemplated. A variety of concentration strategies have been reported aiming at decreasing the limits of detection (LODs). The optical concentration of the substance in solution is one of the novel concepts for the enhancement of the analytical sensitivity. In this study, the optical concentration has been measured by the trapping of gold nanoparticles ((Formula presented.) nm) dispersed in water at low-concentrations at the focal volume of the laser beam. The influence of factors such as the time of gold nanoparticle trapping, the size of the nanoparticles, the intensity of the laser... 

In this study, for the first time, we have shown that the single nano-/microparticle trapping ability of optical tweezers combined with the high selectivity of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) provides an indispensable molecular-level instrument for chemical sciences. Trapping a single MIP inside a solution and analyzing its Brownian motion allow for real-time determination of its target molecule [trimipramine (TMP) in our case] content. This method is also utilized to precisely measure TMP concentration in the bulk solution. The detection and optical volumes, respectively, defined as single MIP volume and laser focal volume, were about a few femtoliters. According to our data within a... 

The resonant second harmonic generation in the presence of a wiggler magnetic field by twisted laser plasma interaction is surveyed. The wiggler magnetic field provides additional momentum required for the phase matching. The Laguerre-Gaussian modes can be used to control the self-focusing and improve the second harmonic generation in laser plasma interaction. The wave equations for the fundamental and the second harmonic fields have been solved in the paraxial approximation. The generation of the second harmonic considering self-focusing is investigated. Also, the dependence of the second harmonic power on the propagation distance for different values of initial fundamental beam intensity,... 

Infrastructure visual impact assessment based on an opinion survey and fuzzy set modeling was attempted. Photographs reflecting various transportation infrastructure and environment features were displayed to a group of transportation professionals and users. The group was asked to complete a relevant questionnaire regarding the highway infrastructure appearance acceptability of photographs. A set of visual impact descriptive variables was identified and directly measured from the photographs. Information about the descriptive variables, questionnaire responses and fuzzy set theory was used to develop membership functions of visual acceptability. More than two hundred candidate membership... 

The photon orbital and/or spin angular-momentum absorption in absorbing plasma medium causes the circular motion of electrons and generate the azimuthal component of current density. The axial magnetic field generation due to the azimuthal component of generated current density is known as inverse Faraday effect. In this paper, the axial magnetic field generation in an absorbing plasma with ramped density by the propagation of linear polarized Laguerre-Gaussian beam is taken into consideration. It is shown that the positive slope of the initial electron density causes a considerable enhancement of self-generated axial magnetic field. The magnetic field enhancement depends on the twisted... 

The positive coupling effect decreases the condensate saturation as a result of very high flow rates in vicinity of the wellbore. The current work challenges the notion that the positive rate effect does not lead in falling trend of condensate saturation around the wellbore in the case of rich gas composition. According to the results obtained from this parameter case study, four distinct trends would appear in the condensate saturation profile of both lean and rich gas compositions. These quadruplet trends are consistent and their occurrence is mainly related to the considered base capillary number (Ncb) which is likely dependent to the composition of the fluid  

This paper describes an attempt to develop congestion indices for a developing country with a limited sampling. Speed and flow rate information was collected from urban highway traffic flow videotaping in Iran. Video display provided information for traffic modeling when, similar to most of the developing nations, Iran does not have locally developed highway capacity manuals. Processing of the extracted data and traffic modeling provided free and capacity flow information for the selected freeway and principal arterial sections for the capital city of Tehran. The congestion indices were associated, in simple and logical models, with five traffic descriptive variables of travel speed, travel... 

We numerically investigate the vacuum electron acceleration by a high-intensity linearly polarized twisted laser pulse. It is shown that the inherent spiral structure of a Laguerre-Gaussian laser pulse leads to improvement in trapping and acceleration of an electron to energies of the order of GeV in the off-axis case. Also, it is demonstrated that by employing a proper choice of initial injection parameters, the high-energetic electrons with very small scattering angles can be produced  

Controlling the safe distances between vehicles on freeways can be used to prevent many accidents. In this research, image-processing techniques have been used to develop an online system that calculates the longitudinal distances between vehicles. This system facilitates controlling safe distances between vehicles without the need for high technology devices. Our approach is real-time and simple, but efficient operations have been used to reduce the image occlusion problem. The main concept of this system is using simple, quick, and effective algorithms for calculating the position of each vehicle in each image. In this way, traffic parameters like speed and distances between vehicles can... 

In this study, the effect of nanoclay on the rheological and morphological properties of polyamide 6 (PA6)/acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) blends was investigated. The scanning electron microscopy micrographs showed that with increment in the nanoclay content, the dispersed phase droplets size and their polydispersity index decreased, and the finer and more uniform dispersed phase was obtained. The transmission electron microscopy micrographs of nanocomposites indicated well-dispersed nanoclay tactoids in the polymer matrix produced by exfoliation of the nanoclay in the polymeric blends. Dynamic strain sweep experiments showed that the extent of the linear viscoelastic region is... 

This paper describes an attempt to shed some light on road safety in Asia Pacific region by characterizing and assessing its road accidents. The relevant national road accident data were extracted from centralized data sources of international agencies. Due to data incompleteness and missing values, 21 Asia Pacific countries, presenting more than half of the world's population, were selected for detailed analysis. The study database consisted of 7 variables, covering years 1980 and 1995. The univariate and multivariate statistical analyses for the selected countries showed interesting results and relations for the selected variables. Accident rates, reflecting road accident risk and... 

Roadway traffic noise pollution for the Greater Tehran Metropolitan Area (GTMA) was analyzed. The study database consisted of relevant information about the noise level, traffic, roadway and meteorological characteristics. The collected noise level information at the roadway sound level meter receptor site included equivalent noise level. The equivalent noise level at reception points along the GTMA roadways was found often in breach of noise standards  

Development of a highway congestion index on the basis of expert and user opinions with fuzzy set theory was attempted. Forty 1-min videotape segments showing different highway traffic flow conditions were displayed to a group of highway experts and users. They were asked to complete the relevant questionnaires on the existence and acceptability of congestion for each video segment display. Five congestion-descriptive variables of travel speed, travel rate, delay rate, travel rate ratio, and delay ratio were determined for each video segment. Information about the values of congestion-descriptive variables for the displayed videos, questionnaire responses, and fuzzy set theory were used to... 

The municipalities of large Iranian cities require regular air pollutant emission monitoring for motor vehicles. The recorded data include information about commonly regulated air pollutants and motor vehicle characteristics which were randomly selected and studied from the Tehran database. Regression analysis was found ineffective in modeling the relationships among air pollutant, meteorological and motor vehicle characteristics. However, the artificial neural network, ANN, modeling seem to be a useful tool for prediction of air pollutants. The developed ANN models were found to be superior to the developed regression models. Application of the study approach and results could improve motor... 

The present study aimed to improve the survivability of L. acidophilus encapsulated in alginate-whey protein isolate (AL-WPI) biocomposite under simulated gastric juice (SGJ) and simulated intestinal juice (SIJ). Microcapsules were prepared based on emulsification/internal gelation technique. Optimal compositions of AL and WPI and their ratio in the aqueous phase were evaluated based on minimizing mean diameter (MD) of the microcapsules and maximizing encapsulation efficiency (EE), survivability of cells under SGJ (Viability), and release of viable cells under SIJ (Release) using Box-Behnken experimental design. Optimal composition comprising 4.54% (w/v) AL, 10% (w/v) WPI, and 10% (v/v)... 

Potential effects of folates on the treatment of several human diseases like cognitive function, neural tube defects, coronary heart disease and certain kinds of cancers have been discovered. However, the stability of folic acid against adverse conditions is a great concern. The present study investigates various alginate (A)–pectin (P) gastrointestinal-resistant hydrogel to immobilize folic acid. This involves evaluating different compositions of alginate–pectin to achieve higher encapsulation efficiency and stability during simulated gastric (SG) and simulated intestinal (SI) conditions. Coated alginate hydrogels with pectin resulted significant (p < 0.05) better protection of folic acid... 

Economic production and on-time ordering are among the most important topics related to production and inventory control issues. An economical production needs a comprehensive and precise planning to be implemented in all production stages. To have a controlled and comprehensive planning system, economic order quantity (EOQ) or economic production quantity (EPQ) models are usually used in various production-inventory environments to minimize costs, avoid delays in orders, and achieve high performance. To meet the demands, sometimes a multiperiod production-inventory planning that involves several products requires outsourcing. In this paper, a production-procurement plan that integrates EOQ... 

In this paper, a new approach for non-invasive diagnosis of breast diseases is tested on the region of the breast without undue influence from the background and medically unnecessary parts of the images. We applied Wavelet packet analysis on the two-dimensional histogram matrices of a large number of breast images to generate the filter banks, namely sub-images. Each of 1250 resulting sub-images are used for computation of 32 two-dimensional histogram matrices. Then informative statistical features (e.g. skewness and kurtosis) are extracted from each matrix. The independent features, using 5-fold cross-validation protocol, are considered as the input sets of supervised classification. We... 

The challenges of water resources sustainable development are enormous. Around the globe, the increasing use of water coupled with environmental deterioration calls for sustainable development of the limited water resources. As a significant part of the world's population still lacks access to safe water and adequate sanitation, and as global urbanization continues to increase, continuous, comprehensive, coordinated and cooperative water resources management is required for the sustainable future of urban areas. The objective of this study was to assess water resources sustainable development for selected urban areas around the world. Using centralized databases of international agencies for... 

International trade is the backbone of our modern, commercial world, as producers in various nations try to profit from an expanded market, rather than be limited to selling within their own borders. There are many reasons that trade across national borders occurs, including lower production costs in one region versus another, specialized industries, lack or surplus of natural resources and consumer tastes. In this paper, international trade distribution is analyzed using the Asian multimodal network. This network consists of 31 countries and for the purpose of this study trade is assumed to be distributed between the capitals of the countries. The study concentrates on the Gravity model of...