Sharif Digital Repository

Background: Melittin, a peptide component of honey bee venom, is an appealing candidate for cancer therapy. In the current study, melittin, melittin-loaded niosome, and empty niosome had been optimized and the anticancer effect assessed in vitro on 4T1 and SKBR3 breast cell lines and in vivo on BALB/C inbred mice. "Thin-layer hydration method" was used for preparing the niosomes; different niosomal formulations of melittin were prepared and characterized in terms of morphology, size, polydispersity index, encapsulation efficiency, release kinetics, and stability. A niosome was formulated and loaded with melittin as a promising drug carrier system for chemotherapy of the breast cancer cells.... 

A two-level Sparse Topical Coding (STC) topic model is proposed in this paper for analyzing video sequences of traffic surveillance containing hierarchical patterns accompanied by complicated motions and co-occurrences. In order to automatically cluster optical flow features into motion patterns, a first level STC model is used. Next, the second level STC model is applied for clustering motion patterns into traffic phases. The effectiveness of the suggested method is proved by experiments on a traffic dataset in the real world. Our simulations show that the proposed two-level STC is able to extract the motion patterns and traffic phases accurately, leading to realistic describing the traffic... 

In this paper the response of cantilevered reinforced concrete (RC) beams with smart rebars under static lateral loading has been numerically studied, using Finite Element Method. The material used in this study is SuperelasticShape Memory Alloys (SE SMAs) which contains nickel and titanium elements. The SE SMA is a unique alloy that has the ability to undergo large deformations and return to their undeformed shape by removal of stresses. In this study, different quantities of steel and smart rebars have been used for reinforcement andthe behavior of these models under lateral loading, including their load-displacement curves, residual displacements, and stiffness, were discussed. During... 

Sufficient quantity of trace metals is essential for a well performing anaerobic digestion (AD) process. Among the essential trace elements in active sites of multiple important enzymes for AD are iron and nickel ions. In the present study, iron and nickel in the form of Fe2O3 and NiO were coated on TiO2 nanoparticles to be used in batch and continuous operation mode. The effect of TiO2, Fe2O3–TiO2, and NiO–TiO2 nanoparticles on each step of AD process was assessed utilizing simple substrates (i.e. cellulose, glucose, acetic acid, and mixture of H2–CO2) as well as complex ones (i.e. municipal biopulp). The hydrolysis rate of cellulose substrate increased with higher dosages of the coated... 

Cubic MgO micro-particles with approximately 5-10 μm dimensions were synthesized indirectly from magnesium salt solutions through three consecutive steps, namely: wet chemical precipitation, hydrothermal and thermal dissociation. In wet chemical precipitation step Mg(OH)2 uniform lamellar hexagonal nano-structure with about 30 nm in thickness were synthesized from 0.2 M Mg(NO3)2 • 6H2O solution, subsequent hydrothermal processing of synthesized Mg(OH)2 lamellar hexagonal nano-structure in 10, 20, 30, 60, 120 and 180 min produced 5-10 μm MgCO3 micro-cubes which calcinations of these particles leads to production of the same size MgO micro-cubes. Most pure MgCO3 micro-cubes were synthesized... 

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... 

Cone penetration tests have long been used to characterize snowpack stratigraphy. With the development of sophisticated digital penetrometers such as the SnowMicroPen, vertical profiles of snow hardness can now be measured at a spatial resolution of a few micrometers. By using small penetrometer tips at this high vertical resolution, further details of the penetration process are resolved, leading to many more stochastic signals. An accurate interpretation of these signals regarding snow characteristics requires advanced data analysis. Here, the failure of ice connections and the pushing aside of separated snow grains during cone penetration lead to a combination of (a) diffusive noise, as... 

The present paper demonstrates the capability of narrow graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) in constructing new sensing platforms. Graphene nanoribbons have been synthesized via a simple solvothermal route through unzipping of carbon nanotubes, which was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy analysis. These narrow carbon sheets were used to form a composite film by in-situ electro-polymerization with aniline. The produced graphene nanoribbon/polyaniline (GNR/PANI) composite film showed impressive performance in electrochemical determination of dobutamine (DBT). Under optimal conditions, in comparison to... 

We consider nonlinear optimization problems constrained by a system of fuzzy relation equations. The solution set of the fuzzy relation equations being nonconvex, in general, conventional nonlinear programming methods are not practical. Here, we propose a genetic algorithm with max-product composition to obtain a near optimal solution for convex or nonconvex solution set. Test problems are constructed to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm showing alternative solutions obtained by our proposed model  

Nanotechnology is gaining more attention in biotechnological applications as a research area with a huge potential. Nanoparticles (NPs)can influence the rate of anaerobic digestion (AD)as the nano-sized structures, with specific physicochemical properties, interact with substrate and microorganisms. The present work has classified the various types of additives used to improve the AD processes. Nanomaterials as new additives in AD process are classified into four categories: Zero-valent metallic NPs, Metal oxide NPs, Carbon based nanomaterials, and Multi-compound NPs. In the following, application of nanomaterials in AD process is reviewed and negative and positive effects of these materials... 

Herein we report a new organocatalyst for the asymmetric Michael addition of nitroalkanes to α,β-unsaturated aldehydes. This catalyst incorporates a basic imidazole group in addition to the secondary amine responsible for activation of the α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds via iminium ion formation. The new organocatalyst is capable of catalyzing the enantioselective carbon-carbon bond formation with a high degree of enantiocontrol providing products in enantiomeric excesses of up to 92% and yields of up to to 91 %. These results constitute the best results so far reported for organocatalyzed Michael additions of nitroalkanes to α,β-unsaturated aldehydes, and provide proof of principle that... 

Benzopyrans, or chromenes, are widespread in nature and are considered to be a privileged scaffold in medicinal chemistry. Herein, we report the first organocatalyzed asymmetric synthesis of chiral benzopyrans. The benzopyran unit is constructed through a domino reaction involving an oxa-Michael attack of salicylic aldehyde derivatives onto α,β-unsaturated aldehydes, activated through iminium-ion formation with the organocatalyst, followed by an intramolecular aldol reaction and subsequent elimination of water. This overall reaction sequence provides benzopyrans with aromatic C-2 substituents in up to 60% yield and 60% enantioselectivity, while C-2 aliphatic analogues can be obtained in 90%... 

This paper is to do a brief research on the buckling behavior of composite triangular plates with various edge boundary conditions and in-plane loads. It may be regarded as a right and simple numerical method for the analysis of composite triangular thin plate using the natural Area coordinates. Previous studies on the solution of triangular plates with different boundary conditions were mostly based on the Rayleigh-Ritz principle which is performed in the Cartesian coordinate. In this method, the energy functional of a general triangular plate is derived and the Rayleigh-Ritz method is utilized to derive the governing eigenvalue equation for the buckling problem. The geometry is presented... 

Self-adaptation is a well-known technique to handle growing complexities of software systems, where a system autonomously adapts itself in response to changes in a dynamic and unpredictable environment. With the increasing need for developing self-adaptive systems, providing a model and an implementation platform to facilitate integration of adaptation mechanisms into the systems and assuring their safety and quality is crucial. In this paper, we target Track-based Traffic Control Systems (TTCSs) in which the traffic flows through pre-specified sub-tracks and is coordinated by a traffic controller. We introduce a coordinated actor model to design self-adaptive TTCSs and provide a general... 

Al86Ni10MM4 (MM: Mischmetal) amorphous ribbons were prepared by melt spinning on a child copper wheel. Non-isothermal crystallization kinetics of the amorphous alloy was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The crystallized phases were determined by X-ray diffraction method and transmission electron microscopy. DSC traces were analyzed by Kissinger method to determine the apparent activation energy of crystallization. Changes in the activation energy (Eα) with progression of crystallization were also evaluated by differential iso-conversional method of Friedman. For the precipitation of nanometer-sized Al particles, the activation energy slightly increased with increasing the... 

Surface treatments of TiO2 nanostructure in semiconductor quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSCs) aimed to increase the photovoltaic conversion efficiencies of the solar cells are analyzed. A fluorine treatment, with NH4F or HF, on the TiO2 electrodes leads to a general increase of QDSCs performance in a range of QDSCs using different light absorbing materials: CdS, CdSe, and PbS/CdS. In contrast, no significant effect on QDSC performance has been observed after a TiCl4 treatment conventionally used for high performance dye sensitized solar cells (DSCs). Surface and photoelectrochemical characterization of treated electrodes and full solar cells was carried out by means of X-ray... 

We present an experimental investigation of stochastic switching of a bistable Josephson junction array resonator with a resonance frequency in the GHz range. As the device is in the regime where the anharmonicity is on the order of the linewidth, the bistability appears for a pump strength of only a few photons. We measure the dynamics of the bistability by continuously observing the jumps between the two metastable states, which occur with a rate ranging from a few Hz down to a few mHz. The switching rate strongly depends on the pump strength, readout strength and the temperature, following Kramers' theory. The interplay between nonlinearity and coupling, in this little explored regime,... 

In this work, we present a level set method to simulate steady and unsteady mass transfer from a single droplet moving in a second phase fluid under buoyant force. We initially use level set to determine the interface between the two phases, where the shape of drop forms. Next, we extend this method to solve a unique mass transfer equation for the entire solution domain without considering the discontinuity appeared at the interface. We use a finite element method incorporated with the characteristic-based split (CBS) algorithm to implement axi-symmetric mass transfer equations on a stationary Eulerian grid. Of course, the convection-diffusion modeling of mass transfer is different from the... 

Shot peening (SP) and also severe shot peening (SSP) provide high level compressive residual stress on a certain thickness just beneath the surface. By exposing severe plastic deformation (SPD) via SSP, the nanocrystallization is formed without any chemical alteration and the structure is to be hardened by fully mechanized process. The difference among SP, SSP and repeening (RP) is only related with the selection of the input parameters. Most of the input parameters combination constructs the Almen intensity which is the most powerful condition to be made the decision on the final shot peening of real parts. AISI 1045 medium carbon steel is selected for the optimization of input parameters... 

AA7075 alloy is exposed to severe shot peening (SSP) with an Almen intensity of 20A. The microstructure is analyzed via FEGSEM and EBSD microscopy. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis is used to evaluate the crystallite size in terms of FWHM measurements. The residual stress measurements show a thicker compressed layer (600 µm) formed by SSP. Microhardness improvements are observed as 30% on topmost surface and releases substantially after 600 µm. Coefficient of friction (COF) of treated material remains higher throughout the sliding distance, however, is reduced particularly in the early stage of sliding distance for the wear load of 20 N. The effect of SSP is vanished particularly at lower...