Sharif Digital Repository

The capability to control and maintain upright posture is a fundamental requirement for humanoid robots. Although many control algorithms were successfully presented, it seems developing a new controller inspired from human balance strategy would greatly improve performance and reduce energy consumption. To study the control strategy used by human nerves system more precisely, a balancing exercise was designed and implemented. Five human subjects were asked to stand on an unstable tilting board and balance the board. Instantaneous Eulerian angles of body segments of human subjects were captured by utilizing Xsense orientation sensors. A humanoid robot standing on the tilting board was... 

Varus-valgus deformity is the improper alignment of lower extremities, which results in the increment of the local stress within the cartilage and the consequent alteration of the performance mechanism of the soft tissues around the knee joint. This accounts for changes within the movement pattern and thus further deformities, which, when continued, can lead to more serious damage in the form of osteoarthritis. The aforementioned cycle can be prevented through the conduction ofosteotomy; a surgical procedure in which the addition or removal of a bone wedge can correct the improper alignment. The correct design and conduction of osteotomy in terms of the location, angle, and size of the... 

Human brain is one the most efficient biological neural network that is capable of performing most complicated tasks in very short time. Visual system as a part of the brain can process the visual records from the environment and perform very useful processes on them. The information provided from visual system processes play important roles in human intelligence. In this thesis we introduce and investigate one of the well-known theories about visual system called gestalt theories. These theories tried to define how a biological neural network can perform such results. Gestalt theorists developed rules of perception to explain their ideas including Law of Pragnanz, Similarity, Closure,... 

IL-1 family of cytokines plays a critical role in the regulation of immune response.These cytokines transfer the signals to the target cells through binding to the IL-1 receptors.Interleukin 1 Receptor Type II (IL-1RII) is the decoy receptor of the IL-1 cytokines. IL-1RII is homologous to the signaling Interleukin 1 Receptor Type I (IL1RI) in its extracellular region and can bind to the same cytokines with higher affinity and the same accessory protein. It down-regulates the signaling and suppresses the downstream pathways due to the lack of the intracellular Toll-Interleukin Receptor (TIR) domain. IL-1RII is decorated by carbohydrate units in-vivo. Dynamics and ligand binding of receptors... 

The work reported in this dissertation is the result of a joint venture of biomedical scientists and engineers for understanding human middle ear mechanics through finite element modeling and analysis. The main objective of the research is to explore the middle ear dynamics by using an accurate finite element model of the human middle ear. The research started with developing a systematic and accurate geometric modeling method that can be employed to reconstruct the middle ear from the histological sections of a human temporal bone. Using the method, a solid model of human middle ear was constructed which reveals excellent accuracy in geometry. Then a finite element model of the human middle... 

Nowadays, with increasing concerns about health of food and its influence on human health,food authenticity has become a vital issue and a major challenge for consumers and regulatory agencies. It's especially remarkable about food with high nutritional and economical value. On the other hand, solving these challenges necessitates the use of fast and reliable techniques.Among the various foods, saffron is the main candidate for food adulteration due to its low production and high economic value and from this viewpoint it's in fourth place. Since the scope of fraud in this food is vast and also Iran is the major producer of saffron in the world,the present project has highlighted the... 

Due to increasing environmental concern, special interest has been paid to reduction of organosulfur compounds in transportaion fuels. The sulfur- containing compounds are converted into sulfur oxide, i.e, SOx , during combustion, which is a major source of acid rain and air pollution.Gas condensate is a mixture consisting primarily of pentanes and heavier hydrocarbons which is recovered as a liquid from natural gas. It is a proper hydrocarbon source for producing gasoline, kerosene and gas oil in refineries. In this reseach a gas condensate was used as feedstock for studing oxidative desulfurization (ODS). The influence of various parameters of desulforization including the reaction... 

In this study, an equivalent homogenous material model is proposed for Al6061-T6/Al2O3 metal matrix composite using the hierarchical multi-scale modeling, and the capability of this model in simulation of machining process of this composite is investigated. Molecular dynamic study of the Al/Al2O3 interface is used to obtain the effect of crystallographic orientations and terminations on the tensile and shear strengths at the interface. The Reaxff potential function is employed to estimate the traction-separation relations at Al/Al_2 O_3 interface at temperatures of 300, 400, and 500 K. Next, a cohesive zone model is used at the micro-scale to simulate the interface between the matrix and... 

The effects of gravity and inertia dominate our experiences of the physical world. But as systems are reduced in size, phenomena such as diffusion, surface tension and viscosity become ever more important; at the microscale they can dominate and result in a world that operates very differently from the macroscopic world. Kidney is one of the vital organs in which fluid and mass transfer occur between blood flow in microvessels and urine in microchannels called nephron. The present work is aimed at applying microchannel theory to study renal system. First, a n efficient numerical orthogonal collocation method has been employed to solve the steady-state formulation of electrolyte transport in... 

Three sizes of silica nanoparticles (160±7, 450±10 and 600±25) were sythetized via template-removing method. The synthetized nanoparticles were functionalized with N-(2-aminoethyl)-3-aminopropyl trimethoxy-silane (EDS) to provide a positive charge on the surface of nanoparticles. BET analysis showed that the average pore diameter, surface area and pore volume of nanoparticles were 2.3 nm, 769 m2.g-1 and 0.44 cm3.g-1, respectively. showed that the Amine-functionalized silica nanoparticles were used to enhance the application of alginate polymer for 3D encapsulation of mammalian cells. Incorporating of silica nanoparticles can be suitable for the bead integrity and attachement of mammalian... 

Recent developments in technology resulted in the design of functionally graded materials (FGM) in which properties can be changed gradually. One of the applications of these materials is in the pressure vessels. These materials can be used in a manner which minimize the heat loss and corrosion and maximize the strength. Most of the vessels include a cylinder and a hemispherical cap which used for the storage of liquid or gas. The vessels should be strength enough to handle high pressure as well as base vibration due to earthquake. Static and dynamic analyses of these structures must be performed prior to any application. In this project by utilizing finite element method and cylindrical... 

In this study, transient diffusion of drug into the intervertebral disc is considered. The amount of Diffused drug from the blood into the intervertebral disc of dog is measured and concentration of drug is calculated for each region of the intervertebral disc including nucleus pulpous, inner annulus fibroses and outer annulus fibroses. Using finite element method, it is shown that the amount of drug diffusion into the intervertebral disc is affected by some parameters such as the type of drug, dose if drug and endplate calcification. This research is done in two parts: In first part, diffusion of drug (sulphate) into the dog intervertebral disc is investigated to compare the obtained... 

Nowadays, application of ultrasonic wave technology as a novel method of enhancing oil recovery and also gas an oil well stimulation is prevailing. Not only this method is environment friendly, but also it is economic. Although the application of this method is proved to be of outstanding positive influences in field operations, it suffers from lack of knowledge about the main governing mechanisms and also there are few mathematical models describing the process. In this study it is intended to investigate the role of ultrasonic waves on rate of recovery and the total recovery from porous media. A model is proposed which can predict the recovery at different times of operation. The results... 

Development of novel photosensitizers and photocatalysts with near-infrared (NIR) light activity and efficient sunlight harvesting is of great importance in photodynamic therapy and environmental remediation. In this work, very small (20 nm) upconverter SrF2:Yb,Tm@CaF2:Yb@Fluorine-doped TiO2 heteronanoparticles (denoted as UCNPs@TiO2) with strong UV-blue emission and wide-spectrum photocatalytic activity were synthesized via a facile three-step hydrothermal method, for the first time. The SrF2: Yb,Tm upconverter nanoparticles were produced as the light-emitting core, epitaxially-grown CaF2 : Yb as the middle shell to enhance the Upconversion luminescence efficiency and TiO2 as the... 

Measurement of human movement during work, sport as daily activities has important effects for rehabilitation and biomechanics experts.
Recently, several researches are concentrated on this technology significantly because of new progress in sensors and fusion sensors. In the near future, wearable and ambulatory devices will be used considerably in biomedical applications. In this study, we reviewed some methods about wearable measuring system then introduced and designed innovative wearable clothing for this purpose. Some specifications and advantages of our system in comparison with relevant researches are; using textile sensors that are manufactured through nano electro active polymer...