Sharif Digital Repository

The lipid bilayer plays a crucial role in gating of mechanosensitive (MS) channels. Hence it is imperative to elucidate the rheological properties of lipid membranes. Herein we introduce a framework to characterize the mechanical properties of lipid bilayers by combining micropipette aspiration (MA) with theoretical modeling. Our results reveal that excised liposome patch fluorometry is superior to traditional cell-attached MA for measuring the intrinsic mechanical properties of lipid bilayers. The computational results also indicate that unlike the uniform bilayer tension estimated by Laplace's law, bilayer tension is not uniform across the membrane patch area. Instead, the highest tension... 

We study the metal–insulator transition in one-dimensional Anderson binary alloy with long-range disordered hopping integrals and on-site energies using the transfer matrix method. In this model, the on-site energies and hopping integrals are distributed randomly with long-range correlations characterized by power spectrum of the type (Formula presented.), with different exponents (Formula presented.) and (Formula presented.), respectively. We determine the critical value of long-range correlation exponent of hopping integral (Formula presented.) in the presence of only off-diagonal disorder in which the transition from localized to extended states occurs in thermodynamic limit. When both of... 

We analyze the impact of loss in lattices of coupled optical waveguides and find that, in such a case, the hopping between adjacent waveguides is necessarily complex. This results not only in a transition of the light spreading from ballistic to diffusive, but also in a new kind of diffraction that is caused by loss dispersion. We prove our theoretical results with experimental observations  

A search for supersymmetry through the direct pair production of top squarks, with Higgs (H) or Z bosons in the decay chain, is performed using a data sample of proton-proton collisions at s=8 TeV collected in 2012 with the CMS detector at the LHC. The sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 19.5 fb-1. The search is performed using a selection of events containing leptons and bottom-quark jets. No evidence for a significant excess of events over the standard model background prediction is observed. The results are interpreted in the context of simplified supersymmetric models with pair production of a heavier top-squark mass eigenstate t~2 decaying to a lighter top-squark mass... 

The ratio of the top-quark branching fractions R=B(t→Wb)/B(t→Wq), where the denominator includes the sum over all down-type quarks (q = b, s, d), is measured in the tt- dilepton final state with proton-proton collision data at s=8 TeV from an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb-1, collected with the CMS detector. In order to quantify the purity of the signal sample, the cross section is measured by fitting the observed jet multiplicity, thereby constraining the signal and background contributions. By counting the number of b jets per event, an unconstrained value of R=1.014±0.003(stat.)±0.032(syst.) is measured, in a good agreement with current precision measurements in electroweak and flavour... 

In this study, dynamic response of a micro- and nanobeams under electrostatic actuation is investigated using strain gradient theory. To solve the governing sixth-order partial differential equation, mode shapes and natural frequencies of beam using Euler–Bernoulli and strain gradient theories are derived and then compared with classical theory. Galerkin projection is utilized to convert the partial differential equation to ordinary differential equations representing the system mode shapes. Accuracy of proposed one degree of freedom model is verified by comparing the dynamic response of the electrostatically actuated micro-beam with analogue equation and differential quadrature methods.... 

Constraints are presented on the total width of the recently discovered Higgs boson, ΓH, using its relative on-shell and off-shell production and decay rates to a pair of Z bosons, where one Z boson decays to an electron or muon pair, and the other to an electron, muon, or neutrino pair. The analysis is based on the data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2011 and 2012, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 5.1fb -1 at a center-of-mass energy s=7TeV and 19.7fb -1 at s=8TeV. A simultaneous maximum likelihood fit to the measured kinematic distributions near the resonance peak and above the Z-boson pair production threshold leads to an upper limit on the Higgs boson width of ΓH... 

This paper aims to explore the dynamic behaviour of a nano-resonator under ac and dc excitation using strain gradient theory. To achieve this goal, the partial differential equation of nano-beam vibration is first converted to an ordinary differential equation by the Galerkin projection method and the lumped model is derived. Lumped parameters of the nano-resonator, such as linear and nonlinear springs and damper coefficients, are compared with those of classical theory and it is demonstrated that beams with smaller thickness display greater deviation from classical parameters. Stable and unstable equilibrium points based on classic and non-classical theories are also compared. The results... 

The components of Iranian spearmint essential oil were identified and quantified using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) combined with chemometric tools. A multivariate curve resolution (MCR) approach was used to overcome the problems of background, baseline offset and overlapping/embedded peaks in GC-MS. The peaks were resolved using heuristic evolving latent projection (HELP) and multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) techniques. A new pure variable selection method named multivariate curve resolution-objective function equal to zero (MCR-FEQZ) is introduced and was applied in this work. The performance of this technique was evaluated and confirmed... 

In unreliable supply environments, the strategy of pooling lead time risks by splitting replenishment orders among multiple suppliers simultaneously is an attractive sourcing policy that has captured the attention of academic researchers and corporate managers alike. While various assumptions are considered in the models developed, researchers tend to overlook an important inventory category in order splitting models: deteriorating items. In this paper, we study an order splitting policy for a retailer that sells a deteriorating product. The inventory system is modelled as a continuous review system (s, Q) under stochastic lead time. Demand rate per unit time is assumed to be constant over... 

The main objective of this paper is to provide comparative quantitative examinations on the capabilities of two-dimensional horizontal and pseudo-three-dimensional (3D) modelling approaches for simulating spatial and temporal variability of the flow and salinity in Lake Urmia, Iran. The water quality in the lake has been an environmentally important subject partly because this shallow hypersaline aquatic ecosystem is considered to be one of the largest natural habitats of a unique multicellular organism, Artemia urmiana. This brine shrimp is the major food source for many of the protected and rare shorebirds that visit the lake. A.urmiana can grow and survive in certain ranges of salinity,... 

One of the most important operating parameters which affects the performance and efficiency of active solar stills is brine depth. In all of the previous experimental or theoretical studies, effects of water depth were investigated during only the first 24-hour period (or even shorter periods) of the operation of active solar stills. In other words, only the first day was taken into account. However, the production of an active solar still depends on several parameters such as brine temperature at sunrise (initial temperature), which are all affected by the depth variation after the first day of operation. However, the present research experimentally investigates the long-term effects of... 

Artificial neural networks with multilayer feed forward topology and back propagation algorithm containing two hidden layers are implemented to predict the effect of chemical composition and tensile properties on the both impact toughness and hardness of microalloyed API X70 line pipe steels. The chemical compositions in the forms of "carbon equivalent based on the International Institute of Welding equation (CEIIW)", "carbon equivalent based on the Ito-Bessyo equation (CEPcm)", "the sum of niobium, vanadium and titanium concentrations (VTiNb)", "the sum of niobium and vanadium concentrations (NbV)" and "the sum of chromium, molybdenum, nickel and copper concentrations (CrMoNiCu)", as well... 

A desalination system consumes energy for production of freshwater. Since the solar energy is a low-cost, environmentally clean, and available energy throughout the world, it could be the best source of energy for such systems. In this work, a modified desalination system is presented which uses advantages of thermosyphon heat pipes as a fast and high performance thermal conducting device, and at the same time, employs the advantages of evacuated tube collectors (ETCs) which are flexible and have high performance in adverse weather conditions. Results show considerable increase in the production rate of desalinated water and system efficiency with a maximum production rate of 1.02 kg/(m2 h)... 

We revisit the problem of finding (Formula presented.) paths with a minimum number of shared edges between two vertices of a graph. An edge is called shared if it is used in more than one of the (Formula presented.) paths. We provide a (Formula presented.)-approximation algorithm for this problem, improving the best previous approximation factor of (Formula presented.). We also provide the first approximation algorithm for the problem with a sublinear approximation factor of (Formula presented.), where (Formula presented.) is the number of vertices in the input graph. For sparse graphs, such as bounded-degree and planar graphs, we show that the approximation factor of our algorithm can be... 

This work aims to develop an innovative low-temperature sonochemical synthesis pathway for synthesizing the carbonate-free SrTiO3 nanocrystals with tailored morphology. Ultrasonication causes the formation of stoichiometric SrTiO3 nanocrystals and accelerates their formation. Moreover, SrTiO3 nanocrystals are synthesized at low temperature. The methodology described here is simple, fast, cost-effective, and useful for large-scale production purposes  

A magnetic polyurethane (PU) nanocomposite was synthesized by an electrospinning technique and applied for isolation and preconcentration of fluoxetine from aquatic and biological samples. The nanocomposite was electrospun using a PU polymer solution containing the dispersed magnetic nanoparticles. The magnetic properties of iron nanoparticles, along with the use of an electrospinning technique, led to the formation of a suitable sorbent toward isolation of fluoxetine. The magnetic PU nanofibers could be subsequently removed from the sample solution by applying a permanent magnet. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of the magnetic PU nanofibers confirms that their diameters are in... 

In this article, the transesterification of waste cooking oil (WCO) to biodiesel fuel (BDF) has been studied using KOH loaded on millimetric γ-Al2O3 particles in a novel type of two-impinging-jets reactor (TIJR). The effects of various parameters such as KOH loading (wt %), catalyst loading, and methanol-to-oil molar ratio on the BDF yield were studied. The catalyst particles with a KOH loading of 25 wt % at appropriate reaction conditions (i.e., catalyst loading = 4 wt % and methanol-to-oil molar ratio = 15:1) and at 65 °C were used in the TIJR. The influences of various operating and design parameters such as jet Reynolds number value, feed flow rate, jet diameter, and the internozzle... 

The renal capsule tissue of lamb was irradiated with ultraviolet-C light and the treated samples were analyzed by uniaxial tensile test, dynamic mechanical analysis, attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and contact angle measurements. It was shown that the skin cross-linking is dominant in low doses in accordance with the contact angle assessment. Conversely, the strong bulk degradation takes place at high doses. Similarly, the bulk cross-linking affects the mechanical tests as to enhance the stiffness at low doses, whereas strong degradation occurs at high doses that mainly arises from the strong bulk chain scission  

Recent progress in the development of bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) photoanodes has firmly established it as a promising material for solar water splitting applications. Performance limitations due to intrinsically poor catalytic activity and slow electron transport have been successfully addressed through the application of water oxidation co-catalysts and novel doping strategies. The next bottleneck to tackle is the modest optical absorption in BiVO4, particularly close to its absorption edge of 2.4 eV. Here, we explore the modification of the BiVO4 surface with Ag@SiO2 core-shell plasmonic nanoparticles. A photocurrent enhancement by a factor of ∼2.5 is found under 1 sun illumination (AM1.5)....