Sharif Digital Repository

Synthesis of poly (butadiene-b-sulphone) has been carried out by two methods. Reaction of α,ω-di(sodium phenolate) oligosulphone with α,ω-di(chlorocarbonyl)oligobutadiene or reaction of α,ω-diphenol oligosulphone with α,ω-di(chlorocarbonyl)oligobutadiene in the presence of magnesium. For both methods, the reaction was carried out between two models (bisphenol A and adipoyl chloride) or between a model and an oligomer or between two oligomers. For the first reaction a two-step process, involving the separation and the purification of the phenolate, is described: it is more efficient than the classical one-step process, where acid chloride is added in an alkaline solution of phenol. The second... 

Self-compacting concrete (SCC) is a highly-workable concrete that without any vibration or impact and under its own weight fills the formwork, and it also passes easily through small spaces between rebars. In this paper, the effect of steel fibers on rheological properties, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength, and flexural toughness of SCC specimens, using four different steel fiber volume fractions (0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, and 2%), were investigated. Two mix designs with strengths of 40 MPa (medium strength) and 60 MPa (high strength) were considered. Rheological properties were determined through slump flow time and diameter, L-box, and V-funnel flow time tests.... 

In this investigation, in-situ precipitation of vanadium carbides was employed to reinforce Fe-13Mn and Fe-13Mn-3W alloys by means of conventional melting and casting route. Microstructures were characterized by optical and scanning electron microscopy techniques.Mechanical properties of the materials were determined by hardness, impact toughness and tension tests. It was observed that tungsten improved the strength of the matrix and the reinforcements as well as tensile properties and work hardening rate of the VC-reinforced composite. Ball mill abrasion test was utilized to simulate impact-abrasion wear condition using two types of abrasive minerals. The results showed that the degree of... 

Given a 2-(v,k,λ) design, S=(X,B), a zero-sumn-flow of S is a map f:B⟶{±1,…,±(n−1)} such that for any point x∈X, the sum of f over all the blocks incident with x is zero. It has been conjectured that every Steiner triple system, STS(v), on v points (v>7) admits a zero-sum 3-flow. We show that for every pair (v,λ) for which a triple system, TS(v,λ), exists, there exists one which has a zero-sum 3-flow, except when (v,λ)∈{(3,1),(4,2),(6,2),(7,1)}. We also give a O(λ2v2) bound on n and a recursive result which shows that every STS(v) with a zero-sum 3-flow can be embedded in an STS(2v+1) with a zero-sum 3-flow if v≡3(mod4), a zero-sum 4-flow if v≡3(mod6) and with a zero-sum 5-flow if v≡1(mod4).... 

Asphaltenes are the heaviest and most polar components of crude oils which are commonly stable in the oil, and can precipitate, aggregate and eventually deposit in reservoirs, flow lines, separators, and other systems along production lines due to changes in conditions such as temperature, pressure and composition. There are a few studies published in the literature focusing on the prediction of asphaltene deposition in pipelines, which reveals that there is lack of a comprehensive deposition simulator which fully considers all effective process during asphaltene deposition phenomena. In this work, a novel framework with considering all effective process in asphaltene deposition was... 

In this article, the novel concept of using magnetic nanofluidic electrolyte for redox flow batteries is demonstrated for the first time. In this regard, the stable magnetic nanofluidic electrolytes are prepared by dispersing magnetic modified multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MMWCNTs) in the positive electrolyte of a polysulfide-iodide redox flow battery at mass concentrations of less than 0.3 g L−1. The electrochemical behavior of magnetic nanofluidic electrolyte was examined using cyclic voltammetry at different mass concentrations of MMWCNTs with a carbon felt electrode. Higher and stable peak current densities were observed at larger mass concentrations of MMWCNTs. A polysulfide-iodide... 

Rapid advancements in industry and the demand for control systems have widely brought the use of servo systems in great attention. Hence, investigation of various servo motors and their industrial applications is significant. Today, servo systems are often used to control the speed, position and torque in machine tools and robots. Servo motors are capable of performing the control commands, with high accuracy and speed. High acceleration, power factor, stability, durability, thermal and other environmental robustness along with their ability of controlling the torque in a wide range of speeds leads the practical engineer towards the choice of servo motors for control purposes in industry. In... 

During last 20 years, neuroimaging with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in people with drug addictions has introduced a wide range of quantitative biomarkers from brain's regional or network level activities during different cognitive functions. These quantitative biomarkers could be potentially used for assessment, planning, prediction, and monitoring for "addiction medicine" during screening, acute intoxication, admission to a program, completion of an acute program, admission to a long-term program, and postgraduation follow-up. In this chapter, we have briefly reviewed main neurocognitive targets for fMRI studies associated with addictive behaviors, main study types using... 

Tabriz city in NW Iran is a seismic-prone province with recurring devastating earthquakes that have resulted in heavy casualties and damages. This research developed a new computational framework to investigate four main dimensions of vulnerability (environmental, social, economic and physical). An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) Model and a SWOT-Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) were applied. Firstly, a literature review was performed to explore indicators with significant impact on aforementioned dimensions of vulnerability to earthquakes. Next, the twenty identified indicators were analyzed in ArcGIS, a geographic information system (GIS) software, to map earthquake... 

Tabriz city in NW Iran is a seismic-prone province with recurring devastating earthquakes that have resulted in heavy casualties and damages. This research developed a new computational framework to investigate four main dimensions of vulnerability (environmental, social, economic and physical). An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) Model and a SWOT-Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) were applied. Firstly, a literature review was performed to explore indicators with significant impact on aforementioned dimensions of vulnerability to earthquakes. Next, the twenty identified indicators were analyzed in ArcGIS, a geographic information system (GIS) software, to map earthquake... 

Objective This study was conducted to evaluate the changes occurring in the thickness of deep trunk muscles, measured using ultrasound imaging, after 4 wks of lumbosacral orthosis use in conjunction with routine physical therapy. Design This parallel-group, randomized, controlled trial was conducted on 44 patients with nonspecific chronic low back pain, randomly allocated to the experimental and control groups. Both groups received eight sessions of physical therapy twice per week for 4 wks. The experimental group wore nonextensible lumbosacral orthosis, in addition to undergoing routine physical therapy. The thickness of the transversus abdominis, obliquus internus, and lumbar multifidus... 

Supply chain management integrates planning and controlling of materials, information, and finances in a process which begins from suppliers and ends with customers. Optimal planning decisions made in such a distribution network usually include transportation, facilities location, and inventory. This study presents a new approach for considering customers’ differentiation in an integrated location-allocation and inventory control model using transfer recurrent neural network (RNN). In this study, a location and allocation problem is integrated with inventory control decisions considering two classes of strategic and non-strategic customers. For the first time, a novel transfer RNN is applied... 

In this research, full density, single phase microstructure (in the XRD and SEM detection limits), and fine-grained SnO2 varistors with an average grain size of 0.65 μm was acquired at low temperature by the two-step sintering technique. The sintering temperature was successfully decreased from 1300 °C in the normal sintering to 1150 °C and 1100 °C of respectively the first and the second stage in the two-step sintering. The mechanism of grain growth suppression of the two-step sintered samples was discussed and it was suggested that in addition to triple point junction, solute drag and/or nano-secondary phases contribute to cease the grain growth. These SnO2 varistors exhibited ultra-high... 

This article is focused on developing an Energy Service Company (ESCO) risk assessment model for use by energy savings certificates (ESC) market regulators. This model enables market regulators to determine the appropriate point in time for ESCOs to sell their certificates with the aim of minimizing risk as well as maximizing economic gain yet remain motivated for reducing the cost of energy efficiency technologies. To this end, the interactions between an ESCO and other parties (such as suppliers) in the market in addition to the principles of the energy efficiency performance contract are taken into consideration. Then, appropriate probability distributions have been fitted to the... 

Fault tolerant operation of single-ended non-isolated DC-DC converters used in embedded and safety critical applications is mandatory to guaranty service continuity. This paper proposes a new, fast and efficient FPGA-based open and short-circuit switch fault diagnosis asssociated to fault tolerant converter topology. The results of Hardware-In-the-Loop and experimental tests are presented and discussed  

It has long been thought that intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) might be located in the cores of globular clusters. However, studies attempting to confirm this possibility have been inconclusive. To refine the search for these objects, Baumgardt et al. completed a series of N-body simulations to determine the observational properties that a host globular cluster should possess. Keys to revealing the presence of an IMBH were found to be the shape of the cluster's core proper motion dispersion profile and its surface density profile. Among the possible host clusters identified by Baumgardt et al., NGC6266 was found to be the most suitable object to search. Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field... 

A facile sonochemical method has been developed to prepare very small zinc sulfide nanoparticles (ZnS NPs) of extremely small size about 1. nm in diameter using a set of ionic liquids based on the bis (trifluoromethylsulfonyl) imide anion and different cations of 1-alkyl-3-methyl-imidazolium. The structural features and optical properties of the NPs were determined in depth with X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution TEM (HRTEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis, and UV-vis absorption spectroscopy. The energy band gap measurements of ZnS NPs were calculated by UV-vis absorption... 

Fingerprint is widely used in identification and verification systems. In this paper, we present a novel feature extraction method based on Gabor filter and Recursive Fisher Linear Discriminate (RFLD) algorithm, which is used for fingerprint identification. Our proposed method is assessed on images from the biolab database. Experimental results show that applying RFLD to a Gabor filter in four orientations, in comparison with Gabor filter and PCA transform, increases the identification accuracy from 85.2% to 95.2% by nearest cluster center point classifier with Leave-One-Out method. Also, it has shown that applying RFLD to a Gabor filter in four orientations, in comparison with Gabor filter... 

In this experimental study the effect of physical and thermal properties of various FRP bars on their performance under elevated temperatures are investigated. The parameters included the bars' diameter, type of fiber, type of resin, fiber to matrix ratio, and thermal properties were studied. Moreover, ANOVA (ANalysis Of VAriance) was performed in order to investigate the contribution of each variable on the obtained results. The results showed that in addition to the temperature, the bars' diameter, type of fiber, type of resin, and thermal properties (Tg and Td) of the FRP bars have contributions to the results, while the fiber to matrix ratio was found to be an ineffective factor. It was... 

In this study, a new isolated high-gain switched-boost DC/DC converter employing two symmetrical switched-boost networks along with a modified control algorithm based on the combination of the pulse-width modulation (PWM) and phase-shift modulation is proposed. Utilising symmetrical switched-boost networks increase the voltage gain of the proposed converter, significantly. Moreover, applying the proposed switching algorithm on the proposed isolated switched-boost DC/DC converter leads to the following advantages: (i) high-voltage gain, (ii) zero voltage switching (ZVS) turn-on of two switches, (iii) ZVS turnoff of two switches and (iv) appearing three controllable parameters (the...