Sharif Digital Repository

Synchronization of fractional-order hyperchaotic complex systems is an interesting phenomenon since it has several applications in applied sciences. Based on the complexity of hyperchaotic dynamical systems and unpredictability of hidden attractors, which may exist in their phase spaces and could be beneficial in secure communications, a scheme to derive the analytical formula of the control functions is stated to study active control synchronization. Further comparison of this analytical formula with numerical experiments yields an interesting agreement. A novel fractional-order complex Sprott system is proposed to study this kind of synchronization and its dynamics. A secure communication... 

In the contemporary sustainable urban set up, one of the critical issues adversely affecting the quality of life in urban areas and inflicting immense costs on cities is traffic congestion. Traffic congestion is an outgrowth of increased traffic flow in certain locations of large cities. Recently, urban decision-makers and transportation planners resort to one-way traffic system as an effective traffic management strategy, which has a profound effect on reducing traffic congestion and improving traffic flow, leading to urban sustainability. In the present paper, the authors endeavored to develop a novel methodological framework based on optimization techniques in order to mitigate traffic... 

In this work, synthesis of CuIn0.75Ga0.25S2 (CIGS) nanoparticles, the formation of stable dispersion, deposition of high-quality films and, fabrication of thin-film Perovskite solar cells are reported. The stability of nanoparticle ink is crucial in the formation of device-quality films. The chalcogenide-based materials are widely used in thin-film solar cells; in particular, Cu(In,Ga)S2 are used as an absorber and hole transporting layer. In the present study, the nanoparticles of about 20 nm size and bandgap of 1.5 eV are synthesized using a heat-up method. A variety of solvents are used as dispersing media and the stability of the inks is evaluated by precise optical monitoring. We... 

Introduction. Dental caries is the most common cause of tooth loss. However, it can be stopped by enhancing remineralization. Fluoride and casein phosphopeptide-amorphous calcium phosphate (CPP-ACP) are among the most important remineralizing agents. Recent studies have used bioactive glass as a remineralizing agent in different forms. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of a composite paste (prepared by mixing urethane polypropylene glycol oligomer with bioactive glass powder for easier application). Materials and Methods. Enamel disks were cut out of the buccal surface of extracted sound third molars. The samples were randomly divided into 3 groups of 15 and underwent Vickers... 

We have used molecular dynamics simulation to investigate hydrophilic– hydrophobic interfaces between calcium chloride (CaCl2) aqueous solutions and normal hexane. The results demonstrate the increasing impact of salt concentration on the liquid–liquid interfacial tension, hence, negative adsorption of CaCl2 according to Gibbs adsorption isotherm. Moreover, we calculated the density profiles of hexane, water, and the counter ions. The results reveal an electrical double layer near the interface and the less affinity of calcium cations toward the interface than that of chloride anions. Orientation of water molecules at the studied concentrations may result in developing a positively charged... 

A simple, rapid, and highly regioselective green protocols for the synthesis of β-hydroxylnitriles by the direct reaction of epoxides with trimethylsilyl cyanide in the presence of catalytic amount of lithium perchlorate under solvent free conditions in high to quantitative yield is reported  

Treatment of aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes with chiral amines and trimethylsilyl cyanide in the absence or in the presence of Lewis acids (including lithium perchlorate) under solvent-free conditions afforded the corresponding α-aminonitriles in good yields and with a diastereoselectivity of 68 to 86%  

We study the problem of selling an item to strategic buyers in the presence of positive historical externalities, where the value of a product increases as more people buy and use it. This increase in the value of the product is the result of resolving bugs or security holes after more usage. We consider a continuum of buyers that are partitioned into types where each type has a valuation function based on the actions of other buyers. Given a fixed sequence of prices, or price trajectory, buyers choose a day on which to purchase the product, i.e. they have to decide whether to purchase the product early in the game or later after more people already own it. We model this strategic setting as... 

In this study, 1,4-diazabicy lo[2.2.2] octane (DABCO) tribromide was immobilized on silica support by using 3-chloro propyl trimethoxy silane to obtain a silica-supported DABCO tribromide reagent. The synthesized reagent was characterized with elemental analysis, FT-IR spectroscopy, and thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA). This reagent has been applied in the conversion of alcohol to corresponding carbonyl compounds. Alcohol oxidation reactions yield in 52-95%, and the reagent may be recycled five times with further bromine treatment  

We study active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity in the fossil galaxy cluster RX J1416.4+2315. Radio observations were carried out using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope at two frequencies, 1420 and 610 MHz. A weak radio lobe that extends from the central nucleus is detected in the 610 MHz map. Assuming the radio lobe originated from the central AGN, we show that the energy injection into the intergalactic medium is only sufficient to heat up the central 50 kpc within the cluster core, while the cooling radius is larger (∼130 kpc). In the hardness ratio map, three low energy cavities have been identified. No radio emission is detected for these regions. We evaluated the power required to... 

This study presents the results of an experimental evaluation of the performance of high strength concrete (HSC)with basic oxygen steel-making (BOS)slag and nano-silica respectively used as a partial replacement of sand and cement. The properties of fresh and hardened concrete specimens containing 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% BOS as partial replacement of sand and 2% of cement replaced with nano-silica were evaluated. According to the results, concrete samples containing nano-silica with higher BOS percentages, demonstrated improvements in strength and durability properties, while workability was reduced. For example, at 50% BOS content, about 18% increase in compressive strength and 50%... 

Tumor metastasis is responsible for the vast majority of cancer-associated morbidities and mortalities. Recent studies have disclosed the higher metastatic potential of circulating tumor cell (CTC) clusters than single CTCs. Despite long-term study on metastasis, the characterizations of its most potent cellular drivers, i.e., CTC clusters have only recently been investigated. The analysis of CTC clusters offers new intuitions into the mechanism of tumor metastasis and can lead to the development of cancer diagnosis and prognosis, drug screening, detection of gene mutations, and anti-metastatic therapeutics. In recent years, considerable attention has been dedicated to the development of... 

In this study, ternary MWCNTs/CoFe2O4/FeCo nanocomposite coated with conductive PEDOT-polyaniline (PA@MW/F/C) co-polymers were synthesized by microwave-assisted sol-gel followed in-situ polymerization methods. The phases, crystal structures, morphologies, magnetic and electromagnetic features of the as-prepared samples were identified via XRD, SEM, XPS, VSM, and VNA respectively. Absorption characteristics were investigated in the frequency (12–18 GHz) Ku band. XRD, VSM and SEM analysis confirmed the partial reduction process of CoFe2O4 and successfully decorated magneto-dielectric particles with co-polymers. By measuring electromagnetic features of the samples, it was found that coating... 

Two-dimensional MXenes are the newly emerging family of nanomaterials with competitive performance for nano-device development. Surface functional groups and abundant binding sites make these materials ideal candidates for sensor applications. Herein, we report the successful fabrication of a MXene-based nano-bio device for capturing, sensing, and filtering the Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria. Mannose carbohydrate, which binds strongly to E.coli's fimH protein via glucan multivalent interactions, is used as the bio-receptor element. MXene's structure was engineered to guarantee efficient E. coli capturing without mannose detachment. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic... 

The flying agility demonstrated by dragonflies is accomplished by means of complex aerodynamic forces produced by flapping their four wings arranged in a tandem configuration. The current study presents a novel tandem flapping wing mechanism for a biomimetic air vehicle that was designed and manufactured to experimentally investigate the aerodynamic forces. By optimizing the configuration and using spatial network analysis, it is shown that the designed structure can flap the wings in a linear up–down stroke motion and is capable of maintaining good consistency and aerodynamic performance. Such a mechanism could be used in a future biomimetic micro air vehicle (BMAV) design. The mechanism... 

For a given quantum field theory, provided the area of the entangling surface is fixed, what surface maximizes entanglement entropy? We analyze the answer to this question in four and higher dimensions. Surprisingly, in four dimensions the answer is related to a mathematical problem of finding surfaces that minimize the Willmore (bending) energy and eventually to the Willmore conjecture. We propose a generalization of the Willmore energy in higher dimensions and analyze its minimizers in a general class of topologies Sm×Sn and make certain observations and conjectures that may have some mathematical significance  

There is still an open question of how to prepare high-performance counter electrodes for dye solar cells (DSCs) at room temperature; a requirement for flexible DSCs. Here, we introduce Pt deposited cube-like chromium coating as a low-temperature highly-efficient counter electrode for DSCs. Cr is a chemically stable metal and can be easily electroplated on conductive substrates with high roughness (here ∼160 nm) and cube-like appearance. A cyclic electrochemical deposition method with optimized temperature and number of cycles is used to grow Pt nanoparticles on this surface and charge transfer resistance as low as 0.54 Ω cm2 and 0.27 Ω cm2 were obtained at 40 °C and 55 °C solution... 

In this research the parallel machine scheduling problem with preemption by considering a constant transportation delay for migrated jobs and minimization of makespan as the criterion i.e., Pm|pmtn(delay)|Cmax is investigated. It is assumed that when a preempted job resumes on another machine, it is required a delay between the processing time of the job on these two machines. This delay is called transportation delay. We criticize an existing mathematical model for the research problem in the literature [Boudhar M, Haned A. Preemptive scheduling in the presence of transportation times. Computers & Operations Research 2009; 36(8):2387-93]. Then, we prove that there exists an optimal schedule... 

In this research, a permutation flowshop sequence-dependent group scheduling problem with minimisation of total completion time is considered. Since the problem is shown to be strongly NP-hard, a hybrid genetic (HG) algorithm is proposed. The only available lower bounding (LB) method for the proposed research problem in the literature based on branch and price (B&P) algorithm is also enhanced by proposing efficient method to solve sub-problems and proposing a better branching rule. A statistical comparison shows that both the proposed HG algorithm and the proposed LB have better performance than the other methods from the literature with an average 5.96% percentage gap. [Received 13 December... 

Optimal control of large-scale uncertain dynamic systems with time delays in states is considered in this paper. For this purpose, a two-level strategy is proposed to decompose the large-scale system into several interconnected subsystems at the first level. Then optimal control inputs are obtained by minimization of convex performance indices in presence of uncertainties, in the form of states and interactions feedback. The solution is achieved by bounded data uncertainty problems, where the uncertainties are only needed to be bounded and it is not required to satisfy the so-called 'matching conditions'. At the second level, a simple substitution-type interaction prediction method is used...