Sharif Digital Repository

Demand response (DR) is known as a key solution in modern power systems and electricity markets for mitigating wind power uncertainties. However, effective incorporation of DR into power system operation scheduling needs knowledge of the price–elastic demand curve that relies on several factors such as estimation of a customer’s elasticity as well as their participation level in DR programs. To overcome this challenge, this paper proposes a novel autonomous DR scheme without prediction of the price–elastic demand curve so that the DR providers apply their selected load profiles ranked in the high priority to the independent system operator (ISO). The energy and reserve markets clearing... 

Monomer grafting, a unique technique for polysaccharide modification, is always performed under inert (e.g., N2) atmosphere. This work is the first report related to evaluating the possibility and efficiency of the grafting of acrylonitrile (AN) onto starch in presence of oxygen. Thus, corn starch (in both granular and gelatinized states) as well as soluble starch were grafted by AN using a ceric-carbohydrate redox initiating system. Graft copolymerizations were performed under nitrogen, air, and oxygen atmospheres at similar conditions. Grafting occurrence was verified using chemical and spectral proofs. The polymerization mechanism and kinetics were investigated by recording the... 

Acrylonitrile (AN) was grafted onto various natural and modified polysaccharides (i.e., gum arabic, gum tragacanth, xanthan gum, sodium alginate, chitosan, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, hydroxyethyl cellulose, methyl cellulose) by using ceric-carbohydrate redox initiating system. After overcoming practical problems, mainly from the high viscosity of the aqueous solutions of the different substrates, the graft copolymerization reactions were run either in air or in N2 atmosphere under similar conditions. Grafting was confirmed using chemical and spectral (FTIR) proofs. The reactions were kinetically investigated using semi-empirical expressions and time-temperature profiles. An anomalous... 

In this research a mathematical model for controlled drug delivery of Ibuprofen has been developed which accounts for physical kinetics based upon variations of the drug concentration, size and release time for a spherical drug pill. Through this model, the drug release for three sizes of the active ingredient including; 213nm (representing existence of only diffusion limitations), 515nm (representing existence of only solubility limitations) and 367nm (representing both diffusion and solubility limitations) was calculated. Theoretical amounts of the drug after two hours of release are calculated to be 95.3, 99.5 and 95.5 percent, respectively. Comparison of theoretical and experimental data... 

From gas-solid carbonation studies and product characterization by XRD, carbon elemental analysis, and TG-FTIR profiling of evolved CO2, the presence of water vapour at high relative humidity (>25% RH) was shown to cause a drastic acceleration in the rate of CO2 absorption into MgO and Mg(OH)2 producing magnesite and hydrocarbonated precursors. From thermogravimetric experiments in the vicinity of the dew point, carbonation was shown to proceeded in steps triggered by spontaneous condensation (and re-evaporation) of water. Almost complete conversion to magnesite (MgCO3) and/or hydromagnesite [HM = 4MgCO3·Mg(OH)2·4H2O] was observed in a few hours under rather mild conditions of pressure (PCO2... 

Background & Objective: A sensor network is composed of a large number of sensor nodes that are deployed to perform measurement and/or command and control in a field. Sensor nodes are battery powered devices and replacement or recharging of their batteries may not be feasible. One of the major challenges with sensory wireless networks is excessive energy consumption in nodes. Clustering is one of the methods that has been offered for resolving this issue. In this paper, we pursue evolutionary clustering and propose a new fitness function that har-nesses multiple propagation indices. Methods: In this paper we develop an efficient fitness function by first selecting the best clusters, and then... 

Due to non-linear factors such as the rate capacity and the recovery effect, the shape of the battery discharge curve plays a significant role in the overall lifetime of the batteries. Accordingly, this paper proposes a simple heuristic battery-aware speed scheduling policy for periodic and non-periodic real-time tasks in Dynamic Voltage Scaling (DVS) systems with non-negligible leakage/static power. A set of comprehensive analysis has been conducted to compare the battery efficiency of the proposed policies with an optimal solution, which could be derived via the Calculus of Variations (CoV). These evaluations have taken into account both periodic and non-periodic tasks in DVS-based... 

We study four dimensional N = 2 G2 supersymmetric gauge theory on R3 × S1 deformed by a tree level superpotential. We will show that the exact superpotential can be obtained by making use of the Lax matrix of the corresponding integrable model which is the periodic Toda lattice based on the dual of the affine G2 Lie algebra. At extrema of the superpotential the Seiberg-Witten curve typically factorizes, and we study the algebraic equations underlying this factorization. For U (N) theories the factorization was closely related to the geometrical engineering of such gauge theories and to matrix model descriptions, but here we will find that the geometrical interpretation is more mysterious.... 

A unique combination of a supported cobalt complex and the first example of supported NHPI in acetic acid gives a surprisingly stable heterogeneous catalytic system for the selective aerobic oxidation of methylaromatics to benzaldehydes at atmospheric pressure. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2005  

The presence of cracks in a structure can considerably affect its behaviour. This paper presents a finite element study on the vibration, buckling and dynamic stability behaviour of a cracked cylindrical shell with fixed supports and subject to an in plane compressive/tensile periodic edge load. The effects of crack length and orientation are analysed. Under tension load, the results show that the frequency of the shell initially increases with the load, but then decreases as the load further increases leading to buckling due to tension load. The size and the orientation of the crack and the loading parameter can all have a significant effect on the dynamic stability behaviour of the shell... 

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) grafted chitosan was prepared by ceric-initiated graft polymerization of acrylonitrile onto chitosan in a homogenous medium. The copolymer chitosan-g-PAN product was then hydrolyzed to yield a novel smart hydrogel (H-chitoPAN) with superabsorbing properties. The influence of add-on values as well as temperature and time of hydrolysis of the initial chitosan-g-PAN on swelling behavior of the hydrogel was evaluated in water and various salt solutions. The swelling kinetics of the superabsorbing hydrogel was studied as well. The hydrogels exhibited ampholytic and pH-sensitivity characteristics. Several sharp swelling changes were observed in lieu of pH variations in a... 

With the decline in oil discoveries over recent decades, it is believed that enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technologies will play a key role to meet energy demand in the coming years. Polymer flooding is used commonly worldwide as an EOR process. In this work, we propose the synthesis of protected polyacrylamide (PAM) nanoparticles (PPNs) with a hydrophobic polystyrene (PSt) shell by one-pot two-step inverse emulsion polymerization, in which the PSt shell was created by surface polymerization. The shell protects the active PAM chains from premature degradation caused by the harsh environment in the reservoirs, controls the release of the chains as rheological modifiers, and additionally, it... 

Abstract original image Smart Enhanced Oil Recovery Process using Core–Shell Nanoparticles: The cover image denotes schematically the enhanced oil recovery process by flooding using an aqueous dispersion of core–shell nanoparticles made up of protected polyacrylamide nanostructures (PPNs). Y. Tamsilian and his colleagues at Sharif University of Technology (Iran) and the Institute for Polymer Material (POLYMAT, Spain) demonstrated the synthesis of polyacrylamide nanoparticles protected with a hydrophobic polystyrene shell by using a one-pot, two-step inverse emulsion polymerization technique, where the polystyrene shell was created by surface polymerization. The presence of the hydrophobic... 

A recently developed two-level undercut-profile substrate (2LUPS), containing two levels of plateaus connected by a curved wall with an undercut profile, enables self-forming filaments in a coated conductor during physical line-of-sight deposition of buffer and superconducting layers. In the present study, the 2LUPS concept is applied to a commercial cube-textured Ni-5at.%W tape, and the surface of the 2LUPS coated with two Gd2Zr2O7 buffer layers using chemical solution deposition is examined. Except for narrow regions near the edge of upper plateaus, the plateaus are found to be covered by strongly textured Gd2Zr2O7 buffer layers after dip coating and sintering  

Chemical fertilizers are widely applied in agriculture to achieve high yield, enhance produce quality and build resistance to diseases; in our case the plant being tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L. var. Royal). However, the acidity, size and taste of tomato fruits could change with excess nitrogen (N) application. The present study aims at the early detection of nitrogen-rich tomato leaves using hyperspectral imaging techniques in the visible and near infrared (Vis-NIR) spectrum, in order to improve plant nutrition composition at an early growth stage. A 30% over-dose of nitrogen was applied to half of the tomato pots. Five leaves were randomly collected from each pot for 3 days (classes D0,... 

Carbon dioxide sequestration by a pH-swing carbonation process was considered in this work. A multi-step aqueous process is described for the fractional precipitation of magnesium carbonate and other minerals in an aqueous system at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. With the aim to achieve higher purity and deliver more valuable mineral products, the process was split into four steps. The first step consists of Mg leaching from the magnesium silicate in a stirred vessel using 1 M HCl at 80 °C, followed by a three step precipitation in reactors in sequence to remove Fe(OH)3, then Fe(OH)2 and other divalent ions, and finally MgCO3 nucleation and growth. Hydrated magnesium carbonate... 

In this paper, we propose a new scheme to provide multiservice transmission on generalized multiprotocol label switching (GMPLS) networks using optical code-division multiplexing (OCDM) in each wavelength of a wavelength-division multiplexing system. To provide multiservice transmission in a typical GMPLS network, we propose to classify the fiber bandwidth into a number of waveband and consider the wavelengths of each waveband for a specific class-of-service such that the corresponding codes to be used are designed based on the characteristics of the class-of-service. The traffic behavior of the network is examined using Erlang's model, and the probability density functions (PDF) of the... 

All-optical multi-service path switching in optical code switched GMPLS core networks  

In this paper, we analyze and discuss the performance limits of optical clock recovery systems using a phase-locked loop (PLL) structure with nonlinear two-photon absorption (TPA) phase detection scheme. The motivation in analyzing the aforementioned optical PLL with TPA receiver structure is due to a recent successful experiment reported in . We characterize the mathematical structure of PLLs with TPA, so as to evaluate the performance limits on optical clock recovery mechanism. More specifically, we identify two intrinsic sources of phase noise in the system namely, the on- off nature of the incoming data pulses and the detector's shot noise that ultimately limit the performance of the... 

In this letter we consider optimum code structure for positive optical code division multiple-access (optical CDMA) systems. Positive systems are a class of systems that operate with positive real numbers only. We consider the effect of multipleaccess interference in our model and show that code design for both On-Off Keying (OOK) and Binary PPM optical CDMA systems results in the same solutions. Furthermore, we show that a class of codes known as optical orthogonal codes (OOCs) are the best possible positive codes. In obtaining the results we define normalized divergence based on signal-to-multipleaccess interference ratio (SIR) for a multiple-access system in a useful manner and use it as...