Sharif Digital Repository

Mesoporous MCM-48 silica was synthesized by templating method and the structure of particles was characterized by XRD, TEM and N 2 adsorption techniques. The surface modification of particles in order for introducing into PSF matrix was performed by dimethyldichlorosilane (DMDCS) silylation agent. SEM images of as-synthesized and modified MCM-48/PSF MMMs indicate that in the modified MCM-48 silica particles adhered well to the PSF matrix and that the synthesized MMMs were defect free. The incorporation of MCM-48 particles in to the PSF matrix and also surface coating of these MMMs by polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) were performed. The quality of surface coating was investigated by SEM images and... 

Background: Nowadays, study and application of modified membranes for water treatment have been considered significantly. The aim of this study was to prepare and characterize a polysulfone (PSF)/graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposite membrane and to evaluate for arsenate rejection from water. Materials and methods: The nanocomposite PSF/GO membrane was fabricated using wet phase inversion method. The effect of GO on the synthesized membrane morphology and hydrophilicity was studied by using FE-SEM, AFM, contact angle, zeta potential, porosity and pore size tests. The membrane performance was also evaluated in terms of pure water flux and arsenate rejection. Results: ATR-FTIR confirmed the... 

In this paper, we address theoretical limitations in estimating the mixing matrix in noisy Sparse Component Analysis (SCA) in the two-sensor case. We obtain the Cramér-Rao Bound (CRB) error estimation of the mixing matrix based on the observation vector x=(x1,x2)T. Using the Bernoulli-Gaussian (BG) sparse distribution for sources, and some reasonable approximations, the Fisher Information Matrix (FIM) is approximated by a diagonal matrix. Then, the effect of off-diagonal terms in computing the CRB is investigated. Moreover, we compute an oracle CRB versus the blind uniform CRB and show that this is only 3 dB better than the blind uniform CRB. Finally, the CRB, the approximated CRB, the... 

We demonstrated a novel mixed-matrix composite membrane (MMCM) based on acrylated polyurethane (APU) and UiO-66 nanoparticles to separate CO 2 /N 2 mixture. UiO-66 and functionalized UiO-66 including NH 2 -UiO-66 and glycidyl methacrylate (GMA)-UiO-66 were loaded into APU/2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (APUH) matrix at variable concentrations between 3 and 30 wt %. APUH/GMA-UiO-66 MMCMs exhibited strong adhesion with a support layer of polyester/polysulfone, which was not deteriorated after immersion in water for a long time (20 days). Incorporation of UiO-66 and its functionalized forms increased simultaneously permeability and CO 2 /N 2 selectivity, which were indeed superior in comparison... 

In this letter, we address the theoretical limitations in estimating the mixing matrix in noisy sparse component analysis (SCA) for the two-sensor case. We obtain the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) error estimation of the mixing matrix. Using the Bernouli-Gaussian (BG) sparse distribution, and some simple assumptions, an approximation of the Fisher information matrix (FIM) is calculated. Moreover, this CRLB is compared to some of the main methods of mixing matrix estimation in the literature. © 2008 IEEE  

The major obstacles in gas separation by mixed-matrix composite membranes (MMCMs) are poor dispersion and poor affinity between polymers and fillers. The present study demonstrates that these challenges can be overcome appropriately by utilizing a series of synthesized MMCMs. MMCMs were prepared with UV-curable polyurethane acrylate and UiO-66 as selective layer and polyester/polysulfone (PS/PSF) as support layer. The physical properties of prepared MMCMs were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Microscopic analysis by FESEM revealed that desirable nanoscale dispersion of UiO-66,... 

Removal of aromatic compounds from fuel is an essential requirement in new environmental policies. In the present study, poly(vinyl alcohol)/graphene oxide (GO) mixed matrix membranes were prepared and applied to the separation of toluene from iso-octane by pervaporation, considering the similarity and interaction between graphene and aromatics. The effects of crosslinking and GO content on separation efficiency have been investigated in detail. Owing to the high affinity of GO with toluene through s and π bonds, the selectivity of the membranes was increased by incorporating a low amount of GO. The results also indicated that noncrosslinked membranes have higher selectivity and permeation... 

One of the major problems in underdetermined Sparse Component Analysis (SCA) is the appropriate estimation of the mixing matrix, A, in the linear model x(t) = As(t), especially where more than one source is active at each instant of time (It is called 'multiple dominant problem'). Most of the previous algorithms were restricted to single dominant problem in which it is assumed that at each instant, there is at most one single dominant component. Moreover, because of high computational load, all present methods for multiple dominant problem are practical only for small scale cases (By 'small scale' we mean that the average number of active sources at each instant, k, is less than 5). In this... 

In this paper, we focus on the mixing matrix estimation which is the first step of Sparse Component Analysis. We propose a novel algorithm based on Expectation- Maximization (EM) algorithm in the case of two-sensor set up. Then, a novel iterative Bayesian clustering is applied to yield better results in estimating the mixing matrix. Also, we compute the Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimates of the elements of the second row of the mixing matrix based on each cluster. The simulations show that the proposed method has better accuracy and less failure than the EM-Laplacian Mixture Model (EM-LMM) method. copyright by EURASIP  

Abstract: In this paper, a secure and efficient Blind Source Separation (BSS) based cryptosystem is presented. The use of BSS in audio and image cryptography in wireless networks has attracted more attention. A BSS based cryptosystem consists of three main parts: secret data, secret keys, and mixing matrix. In this paper, we propose a new design to create a proper mixing matrix in BSS based cryptosystem. We offer a mathematical criterion to select mixing matrix elements before encryption. The proposed criterion gives a simple way to attach the secret sources to keys, which makes source separation very hard for the adversary. Versus, we show that using the random mixing matrix can lead to... 

Phase separation is one of the common methods for fabrication of polymeric membrane, which classifies into the categories of Thermally Induced Phase Separation (TIPS) and Nonsolvent Induced Phase Separation (NIPS), i.e. heat and mass transfer induced phase separation, respectively. NIPS has been applied more commonly than TIPS, but the membranes which have resulted from this technique have macro finger-like voids, weak mechanical strength and not high separation ability in comparison with the TIPS. In contrast, membranes produced by the TIPS method have micro scale pores, high mechanical strength and also high separation capability, however, polymeric solutions prepared at high temperatures... 

In this research, Plackett–Burman experimental design was used as a screening method to investigate seven processing factors in the preparation of new polyethersulfone based porous nanocomposite membrane. Polymer concentration, nanoparticle type, nanoparticle concentration, solvent type, solution mixing time, evaporation time, and annealing temperature are variables that were evaluated to fabricate mixed matrix membranes using the evaporation phase inversion method for gas separation. According to obtained results, polymer concentration, nanoparticle concentration, solution mixing time, and evaporation time processing factors had significant effects on gas permeation. In addition, the... 

Poly(vinyl alcohol)/graphene oxide mixed matrix membranes have been prepared and applied for the pervaporation of isooctane (aliphatic) and toluene (aromatic) mixtures. Characteristics of the membranes such as crystallinity, morphology, and swelling have been investigated, and the results have been used to describe pervaporation performance. Experimental tests evidenced that incorporation of low content of graphene oxide nanoplates (0.5 wt%) in poly(vinyl alcohol) increases affinity of the membrane to aromatics by S and π bonds and selectivity increase to about four times. Moreover, interaction of graphene oxide with toluene results in increasing of swelling and decreasing of permeation...