Sharif Digital Repository

In this manuscript, we designed and fabricated a novel integrated microfluidic Kidney Nephron-On-Chip. This chip is able to culture cell monolayers under various fluid shear stresses and divert osmotic pressure gradients while imposing four different concentrations of an injected drug on cells. The multi-layer platform consisting of two bubble-trappers to eliminate all unwanted bubbles from the system, a concentration gradient generator to generate four different concentrations of the injected drug, and a membrane-based cell culture chamber caple of providing renal cells with their in-vivo condition. Using colorimetric techniques, the bubble trapper ability was quantified at flow rates up to... 

Rapid visual screening is a way to assess unsafe structures and reduce urban earthquake vulnerability. Although this method is faster than detailed analytical methods(e.g. Incremental dynamic analysis), it still requires a lot of time and financial resources to execute. Due to the widespread use of computer vision in engineering, this study has used this technology to perform rapid visual screening, improve its overall process and provide a standard method for automatic assessment of structures. In the process of rapid visual screening, the screener identifies features from the exterior view of the building, which are finally recorded in a scoring system. According to the score obtained,... 

One of the most prominent issues in road safety is to observe reaction time and sight distance in geometric design. Various sight distances are available is Iran's specifications on "Geometric Design of Roadways" taken from the AASHTO standard from which stopping sight distance, decision sight distance and their corresponding car driver reaction times are noteworthy. This research puts effort in obtaining these values for bus drivers in Iran. To achieve this, a test designed using bus driving simulator apparatus, developed in K.N.Toosi University of Technology, was conducted on a number of bus drivers. Obtained results of driver behavior were then analyzed and compared to corresponding... 

Proteins carry out most important roles in the organisms and they have a number of functions including structural, catalytically, regulatory and transportal, However for protein to have functional role they must be able to possess tridimensional structure. Several proteins due to various genetic and physico-chemical conditions have shown to alter their tridimensional structure leading to insoluble fibrilar structure. One of the properties of these insoluble fibrils is conformational change, converting to β-sheet rich structures; the entire process of converting soluble to proteins insoluble fibrils known as amyloid formation. The proteins amyloidosis have been seen as causative role in a... 

In the first section of this research, we have developed a simple and rapid colorimetric method for determination of tizanidine using citrate capped gold nanoparticles. Under optimal conditions, the AuNPs easily aggregate upon addition of tizanidine and the solution color changes from red to gray. This color change was followed using a UV-Vis spectrophotometer. The detection limit was calculated to be 0.48 µM. The method was successfully applied for determination of tizanidine in Spalex© tablets. In the last section, the anti-aggregation effect of Hg(II) on the tizanidine-AuNPs system was utilized with the aim of developing a colorimetric method for detection of Hg(II). Addition of... 

Einstein's general theory of relativity is an admirable successful and unifier geometrical modeling among concepts of space, time and gravity. This theory along with special theory of relativity made a massive change in our physical view and this, especially in its historical context, has deep and interesting consequences in man's philosophical viewpoint which can be studied. Some parts of this thesis relates to these consequences. Some of these interesting consequences may be hidden by computional or mathematical viewpoint and often these equations do not contain enough intuition. in one part, we provide a formulizatin of Einstein's equaion that is intuitional which can be translated in... 

Tropical algebraic geometry is a fairly new branch in geometry which is called so in honor of Brazilian mathematician Imre Simon who was pioneer of this field.The set equipped with the addition and multiplication is a semifield.Algebraic geometry objects like algebraic varieties can be defined over.Polynomials and rational functions are defined over.The functions that they define are piecewise linear and concave functions and the set of points where they are nonlinear is a tropical variety which is a concave polyhedral. Thus, tropical algebraic geometry is a piecewise linear version of algebraic geometry.Another approach to tropical algebraic geometry comes back to the works of Russian... 

Fatigue cracking has a major impact on the performance of flexible pavements. Many test methods have been established to evaluate and estimate the fatigue life of asphaltic materials. Most of these test methods cannot successfully examine the fatigue properties of asphaltic materials. Recent studies demonstrate that using a standardized composite, which consists of glass beads and asphalt binder, can simulate the stress states that binder experiences in the field. This research used standardized composite to investigate the effect of crumb rubber on the fracture properties of asphaltic materials. To validate the test results, the authors conducted fracture tests on the Fine Aggregate Matrix... 

In the last two decades, novel view synthesis has become increasingly important in the movie and game industries. The new generated views correspond to virtual viewpoints, where no real camera has taken snapshot. Depending on the amount of available information from the scene, different approaches have been proposed to create novel views. If the depth information is available, then by knowing camera relative motion, novel views can be constructed. The conventional cameras only record the intensity of the captured scene, and discard the depth information. In the recent concept of light field cameras, by locating an array of micro-lenses between the camera sensor and the main lens, one can... 

Chip seal is one of the most economical pavement maintenance practice that extends pavement life. To ensure chip seal good performance several quality control methods have been developed. However, most of these methods are qualitative and only measure the stone loss under a certain number on loading. This research developed a new method for quality control of chip seal, based on the assumption that characteristics of the bond between chips and pavement surface play a key role in chip seal performance. To validate this test method, the authors used a wheel track loading test. The results from this research clearly showed that the characteristics of the bond between chips and pavement surface... 

Recently, a new method to investigate chip seal performance has developed by a research team at Sharif University of Technology. This study investigates the effect of various additives such as CRM, SBR Latex, Hydrated Lime and Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), on the curing time of chip seal by this method. In addition, the chip seal treatments were investigated in different climate conditions like Wet and Wet-Freeze zones. The overall performance of mixture specimens evaluated using creep loading test. In fact, the bonding properties between aggregates and surface of Hot Mix Asphalt measured. The test results were analyzed by using of the work and time parameters. These parameters were... 

A Spirit of Trust results from Brandom's thirty-year effort to give a pragmatistic reading of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. In A Spirit of Trust, Brandom reformulates Hegel's arguments in the language of contemporary Analytical Philosophy and gives a unique interpretation of Hegel's key concepts. In this Thesis, we will examine one of its key concepts, namely, Trust; We will pursue the following questions: First, What is Trust? And what is its connection to other aspects of Brandom's philosophy? Second, How does Trust help us in overcoming Alienation? Third, Are Confession and Forgiveness, which are the constitutive concepts of Trust, psychologistic or normative? Fourth, What is the... 

Cracks or construction joints in an overlayed pavement can propagate into the overlay over time due to various factors, the most important of which are traffic and temperature loading, and cause premature failure of pavement. This propagated cracks are called reflective cracks and the phenomenon of crack propagation into the overlay is called reflective cracking. Use of stress-absorbing membrane interlayers (SAMI) is one of the ways can reduce the occurrence of reflective cracking and/or delay it. One of the most common SAMIs is an asphalt mixture consists of bitumen and aggregate layed down between the old and the veneer layers. The function of the SAMI depends on several factors such as... 

The objective of this research is evaluating the effect of filler type and content on the characteristics of asphaltic materials. The properties of the asphalt mixture are greatly influenced by its components. As asphalt mixtures are composed of two prominent components, aggregates and binder, the change in type and contents of these materials may lead to altering the performance of asphalt mixtures. Aggregates in the asphalt mixtures are categorized into three groups based on their particle sizes: coarse aggregate, fine aggregate and mineral filler. The effect of filler on the characteristics of asphalt mixtures can be examined by changing the type and content of filler and holding the... 

The conventional cameras and displays do not have the ability to record and display the full brightness of the world around us. These deficiencies have led to the development of methods known as High Dynamic Range Imaging. Most of the work done in this field falls into two groups: compression of the light range and its expansion. In compression, the brightness range is intended to display content with a high dynamic range in simple displays. But the goal of expanding the brightness range is to reconstruct HDR content from a low dynamic range one. In addition to the above classification, this field is also categorized based on the type of content (image or video). In this study, the... 

Studies have shown that use of crumb rubber additive can improve the mechanical and performance properties of hot mix asphalts. Nowadays, different methods are used for adding crumb rubber to asphalt mixtures. However, no comprehensive research has been done to investigate the effects of these different methods in cold mix asphalts. In this research, different crumb rubber modification methods were evaluated to compare their effects on cold mix asphalts’ performance. In this regard, various crumb rubber modification methods, such as pre blending crumb rubber into the asphalt before emulsification, post blending crumb rubber into the prepared asphalt emulsion and blending crumb rubber with... 

Nowadays in movie and photography industry, scene reconstruction is of high importance. Capturing data containing the depth information of the scene can help us achieve this goal more easily. Ordinary Cameras do not record depth information of the scene so they can’t ease our task. In 2005, some Stanford Researchers, inspired by Adelson’s work, were able to build the first camera that captures depth information. They called it the light filed camera. In these cameras an array of microlenses is inserted below the main lens. By doing this the camera is able to capture the rays’ intensities and their directions in space too. With this kind of information, we are able to obtain the depth of a...