Sharif Digital Repository

T lymphocytes or T cells are a type of white blood cell that play an important role in the immune system. Memory T cells are a subset of them that are able to reactivate when being re-exposed to the pathogen. Because of the properties of these cells, they are an attractive choice for immunotherapy. Initial memory subgroups were shown to be more persistently effective in immunotherapies. However little is known about development and differentiation of these subgroups. With the discovery of a new subset of T cells, called T memory stem cells (TSCM), They are considered to develop through four stages, naive T cells (TN), T memory stem cells (TSCM), central memory T cells (TCM) and effector... 

The oxidation-reduction (redox) responsive micelle system is based on a diselenide-containing triblock copolymer, poly(ε-caprolactone)-bis(diselenide-methoxy poly(ethylene glycol)/poly(ethylene glycol)-folate) [PCL-(SeSe-mPEG/PEG-FA)2]. Resulting in the development of tumor-targeted delivery for hydrophobic anticancer drugs. The diselenide bond, as redox-sensitive linkage, was designed, so it is located at the hydrophilic/hydrophobic hinge to allow complete micelles collapse and efficient drug release, in redox environments. The amphiphilic block copolymers self-assembled into micelles at concentrations above the critical micelle concentration (CMC) in an aqueous environment. Dynamic light... 

In the method treatment of thermobrachytherapy, the method of this project, simultaneously use of two processes of thermotherapy and brachytherapy is considered, which can be a more effective treatment for the destruction of tumor tissue. In thermotherapy, the temperature of the tissue is artificially raised to a temperature that leads to cell dysfunction resulting in cell death. In brachytherapy, the destruction of defective tissue is done by placing a source in the tissue. In the present project, we supposed to consider both mechanisms simultaneously for treatment at the same time. In this project, radioactive material 125I is used as a source of radiation emission for brachytherapy. In... 

Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, or in short, CRISPR is a relatively new technology that enables geneticists and medical researchers to edit parts of the genome by removing, adding, or altering parts of the DNA. Initially found in the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea, this technology can cure many illnesses such as blindness and cancer. A significant issue for a practical application of CRISPR systems is accurately predicting the single guide RNA (sgRNA) on-target efficacy and off-target sensitivity. While some methods classify these designs, most algorithms are on separate data with different genes and cells. The lack of... 

The formation of gas hydrates in oil and gas industries has been the subject of long-standing problems. For example, the hydrate formation may occur and block gas pipelines which can lead to safety hazards. All of these will result in catastrophic economic losses and ecological risks. Therefore, various methods were developed to mitigate the formation of gas hydrate. In many cases, the hydrate inhibition by adding kinetic and thermodynamic inhibitors to the system is the only viable option. But recently using ionic liquids as novel hydrate inhibitors and the discovery of dual function thermo-kinetic inhibitors have been studied. In this project the performance of six imidazolium-based ionic... 

Today, due to limited number of light oil reservoirs, enhanced recovery from heavy oil reservoirs is taken into consideration. During the early production from heavy oil reservoirs, due to high viscosity, only a small amount (about 5%) of the oil can be produced; also after water injection operation due to unfavorable mobility ratio of water and oil, sorely more than about 10% of the original oil can be produced. On the other hand, fractured reservoirs represent about 20% of the world's oil reserves, while over 60% of the world's remaining oil reserves are in fractured reservoirs. Water flooding process leaves very high amounts of oil as remaining oil in these reservoirs too. One of the... 

Naturally Fractured Reservoirs (NFRs) play an important role in petroleum industry and the global economy.. The reservoirs of the most complex geological structures in petroleum engineering science, on the other hand the largest sources of hydrocarbons are considered throughout the world and especially in our country. Therefore, characterization and modeling them frst step to develop best practices for hydraulic fracturing gap, optimal design of production Method and evaluate potential reservoirs. Physics of the present work is 2D two-phase immiscible flow under gravittational effect through fractured porous media and the most practical formulas for transfer function in dual porosity-dual... 

Quadrotors have limitation in performing fast descending maneuver due to entering a dangerous region in velocity space called Vortex Ring State(VRS) which cause considerable loss of lift that may lead to fall. The purpose of this project is to reduce time of fast descending maneuver without entering VRS region by using model predictive control. First, appropriate nonlinear dynamic model of quadrotor obtained by considering important aerodynamics effect. Then by considering velocity constraints in order to avoid entering the VRS region, a nonlinear model predictive controller(NMPC) has designed. This controller successfully reduce the time of the maneuver up to than ordinary descending.... 

In recent years, carbon dioxide is used for enhanced oil recovery of heavy oil. Steam Huff and Puff is one of the enhanced oil recovery methods used for heavy oil. In this study liquid CO2 was used as an injecting fluid instead of steam. In this paper a series of experiments were performed to demonstrate the effect of carbon dioxide injection pressure on huff and puff process. The experimental data are used in lab scale model simulated with commercial simulator Eclipse 300 to investigate the effect of soaking time, injection pore volume and rate of injection on the heavy oil recovery. Result of experiments showed that huff and puff process under miscible pressure condition gives the most... 

Polymer flooding is a famous enhanced oil recovery method and is used to reduce mobility ratio of displacing fluid to displaced fluid by forming a stable front in displacing process. Due to high costs, polymer flooding faces economical risks and from this point of view, performance investigation of polymer flooding in laboratory scale was concerned. In this project, performance of 7 types of polymers which have different rheological properties were investigated in fractured/non-fractured carbonated and sandstone reservoirs. These polymers consists of 4 commercial polymers, one branched polymer, one synthetic polymer and one polymer composite which have different molecular weight,... 

The structural integrity of the sealing material is critical for the reliability of solid oxide fuel/electrolysis stacks. In this study, the mechanical properties of a rapid crystallizing glass of BaO-CaO-SiO2 system were evaluated. The crystallization as a determining factor in the mechanical behavior of the glass-ceramic sealant was investigated via high-temperature X-Ray diffraction spectrometer. Three- and four-point bending tests were carried out to measure the flexural strength (σ) of sealant material bars and head-to-head joined specimens at room- and high-temperatures. In addition, the elastic modulus (E) was measured by impulse excitation test up to 900 ºC. Also, the indentation... 

Low salinity/smart waterflooding is simple to apply and a promising enhanced oil recovery method in which ion-tuned saltwater is injected into subsurface oil reservoirs. Many aspects of this operation, in particular those pertaining to nano-scale, are not yet fully understood. The present dissertation is an attempt to shed light on the microscopic properties and behavior of rock/brine/oil interfaces throughout low salinity/smart waterflooding. Several simulations were carried out for oil/brine and calcite/brine categories each containing various ions and hydrocarbons compounds. The surface contribution of non-functional oil compounds (aromatics and aliphatics) near brine medium was... 

Ionic liquids (IL's) are found to be potentially suitable solvents for the chemical process industry, especially due to their negligible vapor pressure which can result in a major decrease of solvent loss and the environmental harm. One of the foreseeable industrial applications in the field of natural gas processing is the replacement of traditional organic solvents (usually alkanol amines) presently used for the absorption of H2S from sour gases, by suitable IL's. Ionic liquids have been proposed for the separation of gas mixtures. In particular, ionic liquids have been suggested for the removal of the acid gases, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon dioxide, from natural gases and refinery gases.... 

One of the most important challenges in drilling horizontal and directional wells is the optimization of hydraulics and hole cleaning and ECD management. In these wells, poor hole cleaning can lead to formation of cutting bed on the low side of the annulus and cause problems such as stuck pipe or increase in torque and drag. Also poor hydraulic design can lead to decrease in rate of penetration and thus, increase in costs. Mud weight should be placed inside the range of mud window (more than pore pressure and less than formation fracture pressure) in order to prevent kick of reservoir fluid or mud loss.In this thesis, the main goal is to optimize hydraulics and hole cleaning and manage ECD...