Sharif Digital Repository

Environmental degradation due to economic activities is a key challenge facing sustainable development. The fossil fuel production sector is a very polluting industry. In this research, the future trends of pollution accumulation in the region due to direct/indirect oily discharge into the semi-enclosed area of the Persian Gulf are studied. The purpose of the study was not only to alert policy-makers about potential future threats in the region but also to conduct a trial to develop potential solutions to these problems. Four different environmental cases were studied via the principle of system dynamic modeling simulation. The cases consisted of three situations: relaxed, simple policy, and... 

We have performed a numerical solution for band structure of an Abrikosov vortex lattice in type-11 superconductors forming a periodic array in two dimensions for applications of incorporating the photonic crystals concept into superconducting materials with possibilities for optical electronics. The implemented numerical method is based on the extensive numerical solution of the Ginzburg-Landau equation for calculating the parameters of the two-fluid model and obtaining the band structure from the permittivity, which depends on the above parameters and the frequency. This is while the characteristics of such crystals highly vary with an externally applied static normal magnetic field,... 

A (1,2)-dominating set in a graph G with minimum degree at least 2 is a set S of vertices of G such that every vertex in V(G)∖S has at least one neighbor in S and every vertex in S has at least two neighbors in S. The (1,2)-domination number, γ1,2(G), of G is the minimum cardinality of a (1,2)-dominating set of G. In this paper we prove that if G is a cubic graph of order n, then [Formula presented], and this bound is tight. © 2021 Elsevier B.V  

Nanoparticle copper/carbon composite films were prepared by co-deposition of RF-Sputtering and RF-PECVD method from acetylene gas and copper target. We investigate deposition process in the region where by changing pressure, the process converts to physical sputtering mode in constant power regime and at a critical pressure between 1.5 to 3 Pa. The estimated value of mean ion energy at this critical point of pressure is close to threshold energy of physical sputtering of copper atoms by acetylene ions. By utilizing this property and by setting initial pressure from 1.3 to 6.6 Pa, nanoparticles copper/carbon composite films were grown with different copper content. The Copper content of our... 

In this paper, recovery of penicillin G from mycel-containing fermentation broth through physical extraction is investigated. The values of degree of extraction are evaluated as a function of media pH, partition coefficient between aqueous and organic phases for undissociated acid and the pKa of penicillin. The pH variations were measured during extraction operation and the optimum pH value for penicillin G recovery considering its decomposition was obtained. The mass transfer analysis of the extraction system was carried out using two-resistance mass transfer theory. The overall as well as aqueous and organic phase mass transfer coefficients were determined. The investigated mass transfer... 

This paper presents the design performance characteristics of a novel Robotic Mannequin, “RoMa”, developed for the fashion industry. RoMa, a full-body humanoid social robot platform, is currently in the final stages of development for visual merchandising to promote customer appeal. RoMa is characterized by nine features which are listed as: appealing appearance, avoiding the uncanny valley, easy maintenance, interactive, light weight, low developmental cost, suitable body movements, suitable color, and user friendly. In this paper, important design procedures and considerations are briefly presented and discussed. © 2017, Springer International Publishing AG  

In this paper, a new criterion for passivity of haptic devices is obtained. This criterion creates a relationship between Coulomb friction coefficient, viscous friction coefficient, sampling rate, and the maximum simulated stiffness. The process of derivation of the passivity criterion is described in detail. This criterion is improved compared with other existing criteria and predicts passivity in haptic rendering more accurately. In particular, for speeds of less than 5 cm/s, the new passivity criterion should replace the previous criteria to avoid unwanted vibrations of stiff virtual walls. Analytical and numerical investigations are presented to validate the new criterion. A specific... 

Cervical cancer is the second-most-common cause of malignancies in women worldwide, and the oncogenic activity of the human papilloma virus types (HPV) E7 protein has a crucial role in anogenital tumors. In this study, we have designed a therapeutic vaccine based on chitosan nanodelivery systems to deliver HPV-16 E7 DNA vaccine, considered as a tumor specific antigen for immunotherapy of HPV-associated cervical cancer. We have developed a Nano-chitosan (NCS) as a carrier system for intramuscular administration using a recombinant DNA vaccine expressing HPV-16 E7 (NCS-DNA E7 vaccine). NCS were characterized in vitro for their gene transfection ability. Results: The transfection of CS-pEGFP... 

Blood oxygenation is the main performance characteristic of capillary membrane oxygenators (CMOs). Handling of natural blood in in vitro investigations of CMOs is quite complex and time-consuming. Since the conventional blood analog fluids (e.g. water/glycerol) lack a substance with an affinity to capture oxygen comparable to hemoglobin's affinity, in this study a novel approach using modified sulfite solution is proposed to address this challenge. The solution comprises sodium sulfite as a component, simulating the role of hemoglobin in blood oxygenation. This approach is validated by OTR (oxygen transfer rate) measured using native porcine blood, in two types of commercially available... 

The effect of particle size, lattice strain and crystallite size on the hydrogen desorption properties of nanocrystalline magnesium hydride powder was investigated. Commercial MgH2 powder was milled in a Spex 8000M up to 16 h and its structural evolution and desorption characteristics at different time intervals were examined using various analytical techniques. At the early stage of milling, the formation of metastable γ-MgH2 phase was noticed. While the crystallite size gradually decreased to 12 nm with increasing the milling time, the accumulated lattice strain gained a maximum value of 0·9% after 4 h milling. The highest drop in the desorption temperature (∼100°C) was attained at the... 

To improve the hydrogen kinetics of magnesium hydride, TiCr1.2Fe0.6 alloy was prepared by vacuum arc remelting (VAR) and the alloy was co-milled with MgH2 to process nanostructured MgH2–5 at.% TiCr1.2Fe0.6 powder. The hydrogen desorption properties of the composite powder were studied and compared with pure magnesium hydride. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that the composite powder prepared by VAR/mechanical alloying (MA) procedure consisted of β-MgH2, γ-MgH2, bcc Ti–Cr–Fe alloy, and small amount of MgO. The average size of particles and their grain structure after 4 h MA were determined by a laser particle size analyzer and XRD method and found to be 194 nm and 11 nm, respectively.... 

Viscosity of crude oil is a fundamental factor in simulating reservoirs, forecasting production as well as planning thermal enhanced oil recovery methods which make its accurate determination necessary. Experimental determination of reservoir oil viscosity is costly and time consuming. Hence, searching for quick and accurate determination of reservoir oil viscosity is inevitable. The objective of this study is to present a reliable, and predictive model namely, Least-Squares Support Vector Machine (LSSVM) to predict reservoir oil viscosity. To this end, three LSSVM models have been developed for prediction of reservoir oil viscosity in the three regions including, under-saturated, saturated... 

Petroleum monoaromatics including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) are among the notorious volatile organic compounds that contaminate water and soil. In this study, a surfactant- modified natural zeolite and its relevant granulated nanozeolites were evaluated as potential adsorbents for removal of petroleum monoaromatics from aqueous solutions. All experiments performed in batch mode at constant temperature of 20°C and pH of 6.8 for 48 h. The results revealed that the amount of BTEX uptake on granulated zeolites nanoparticles were remarkably higher than the parent micron size natural zeolite (in the order of four times). The isotherms data were analyzed using five models... 

Contraction flow is one of important geometries in fluid flow both in Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids. In this study, flow of a viscoelastic fluid through a planar 4:1 contraction with rounded corners was investigated. Six different rounding ratios (RR =0, 0.125, 0.25, 0.375, 0.438, 0.475, 0.488) was examined using the linear PTT constitutive equation at creeping flow and isothermal condition. Then the resulting PDE set including continuity, momentum, and PTT constitutive equations were implemented to the OpenFOAM software. The results clearly show vortex deterioration with increasing rounding diameter, so that when rounding corner exceeds a critical value, the vortex disappears... 

Nanowire arrays of copper oxide were first grown vertically using simple and cost effective thermal oxidation method on a copper foil. Subsequently, in order to deposit and grow PbS nanocyrstalline thin films on CuO NWs by utilizing the chemical bath deposition technique, these arrays were immersed as the substrate in the reaction solution consisting of Pb(NO3)2, (NH2)2CS and NaOH. The final products were characterized in detail by which the formation of uniform, unique arrays of CuO@PbS core–shell NWs was confirmed. Due to the nature of methods employed in synthesis of this hetero structure, the tuning of core and shell size and consequently properties of the novel structure is easily... 

In this study, H4Ti5O12 nanotubes have been prepared as Li+ adsorbent by acid treatment of Li4Ti5O12 nanotubes. Li4Ti5O12 nanotubes were synthesized via a hydrothermal method in which TiO2(B) nanNotubes were used as a precursor. The prepared Li-ion sieve showed a significant high ion-exchange capacity (160.6 mgg-1) for lithium ions due to its large specific surface area of 115.4 m2 g-1 compared to the other related studies. The kinetics and isotherm investigation revealed that the pseudo-second-order equation well described the adsorption kinetics, and the Langmuir model well fitted the isotherm data. Furthermore, the low value of adsorption energy obtained from the Dubinin-Radushkevitch... 

Young’s modulus (E) is one of the most important parameters in the mechanical properties of solid materials. Young’s modulus is proportional to the stress and strain values. There are several experimental and theoretical methods for gaining Young’s modulus values, such as stress–strain curves in compression and tensile tests, electromagnetic-acoustic resonance, ultrasonic pulse echo and density functional theory (DFT) in different basis sets. Apparently, preparing specimens for measuring Young’s modulus through the experimental methods is not convenient and it is time-consuming. In addition, for calculating Young’s modulus values by software, presumptions of data and structures are needed.... 

In this study, H4Ti5O12 nanotubes have been prepared as Li+ adsorbent by acid treatment of Li4Ti5O12 nanotubes. Li4Ti5O12 nanotubes were synthesized via a hydrothermal method in which TiO2(B) nanNotubes were used as a precursor. The prepared Li-ion sieve showed a significant high ion-exchange capacity (160.6 mgg−1) for lithium ions due to its large specific surface area of 115.4 m2 g-1 compared to the other related studies. The kinetics and isotherm investigation revealed that the pseudo-second-order equation well described the adsorption kinetics, and the Langmuir model well fitted the isotherm data. Furthermore, the low value of adsorption energy obtained from the Dubinin-Radushkevitch... 

The null-space method (NSM) for solving the nonlinear programming (NLP) is used to transform an indefinite system into a symmetric positive definite one of a smaller dimension. In this paper, an NSM optimises the constrained NLP model of the inventories in multi-level supply chains (SCs). The presented NSM can give a direct method with a predictable level of fill without pivoting, decreasing the number of taken iterations to find the optimum solution. We transform the nonlinear equations into an NLP model, which NSM can solved. We also investigate the suitability of using null-space-based factorisations to derive sparse direct methods. Accordingly, an integrated lot-sizing model of the... 

Hexapod robots gives us the ability to study walking robots without facing problems such as stability in many aspects. It has a great deal of flexibility in movement even if a leg becomes malfunctioned. Radially symmetric (hexagonal) hexapods have more flexibility in movement than rectangular leg alignments. Because of symmetry they can move in any direction and time efficiently. Inverse kinematic problem of this kind of hexapods is solved through a modular mobile view considering six degrees of freedom for the trunk. Then typical tripod and wave gaits are analyzed and simulated through the presented formulation. In Reinforcement Learning algorithm for walking it is important how to make...