Sharif Digital Repository

Accurate mapping of flood risk areas is the basis for providing basic information on flood hazard reduction strategies and facilitates the relocation process. This study compared statistical approaches and multi-criteria-decision-making (MCDM) in flood hazard susceptibility mapping (FHSM). The performance of two statistical methods, the Evidential Belief Function (EBF) and Weight of Evidence (WOE), was compared with the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) as an MCDM technique. Mohammad-Abad catchment, known as one of the flood susceptible areas in northern Iran, was selected as a case study. A 100-year flood event with a peak flow of 85 m3/s, known as... 

In the present study, the solubility of paracetamol in supercritical CO2 is measured at temperatures between 311 and 358 K and pressures between 95 and 265 bar. It was shown that the solubility of paracetamol through a static solubility measurement method was between 0.3055 × 10−6 to 16.3582 × 10−6 based on mole fraction. The obtained experimental solubility data revealed the direct effect of pressure on the paracetamol experimental data, while the temperature has a dual effect of both increasing and decreasing effect considering the shifting point known as crossover pressure which was measured to be around 110 bar for paracetamol. Besides, two theoretical approaches were applied to predict... 

Resolver, as an electromagnetic sensor, is widely used in many industrial applications. It can detect the position of the rotary part of the electric machines precisely. In commercial resolvers, excitation winding is connected to the High-Frequency (HF) AC source. The amplitude-modulated voltages induced in signal windings need to be demodulated in order to calculate the envelope of the output signals and detect the position accordingly. On the other hand, in PM-resolver, signal windings are replaced by Hall-effect sensors to measure the DC magnetic ux, which is produced by permanent magnets. In this study, the performance of both AC and DC ux resolvers is investigated under di erent... 

Choosing the right location for the sustainable development of offshore wind energy plays an important role in the success of renewable projects. In this regard, in the present study, a new application of the hybrid Fuzzy-SWARA & Fuzzy-WASPAS method was presented to prioritize the suitable area for developing offshore wind projects. For a case study, five regions with high potential for offshore wind energy in the Persian-Gulf have been investigated. Economic assessment was evaluated using the Levelized Cost of energy method. Evaluation of offshore wind farms has been analyzed from various aspects including technical, economic, social, environmental and risk. The SWARA was used for weighting... 

The selection of a suitable duty factor (DF) remains a major challenge in respiratory-gated treatments. Therefore, this study aims at presenting a new methodology for fast optimizing the gating window width (duty factor (DF)) in respiratory-gated proton partial breast irradiation (PBI). To do so, GATE Monte Carlo simulations were performed for various target sizes and locations in supine and prone positions. Three different duty factors of 20, 25, and 33% were considered. Sparing factors (SF) for four organs-at-risk (OARs) were then assessed. The weighted-sum method was employed to search for an optimal DF. The results indicate that an SF higher than unity was obtained for all plans. The SF... 

This study aims at analyzing the performance of three units known as low salt rejection reverse osmosis (LSRRO), split-feed counterflow reverse osmosis (SF-CFRO), and split-brine counterflow reverse osmosis (SB-CFRO) and implementing them in a modified multi-stage multi-feed counter-current membrane with cascade recycle for dewatering hypersaline streams to the salinity appropriate for crystallizers' feed. Exergy and primitive pinch analysis showed that dewatering is limited in SF-CFRO as the permeate inlet dictates the maximum salinity difference at the pinch point as well as high frictional pressure loss in the permeate channel. SB-CFRO and LSRRO units can reach high salinities by... 

Drying is a common practice for delaying deterioration, preserving quality, and easier prolonged storage of agricultural products. According to the climatic and geographical conditions of Arsanjan County, Fars, Iran. So far, many studies have been conducted on the design and use of various barriers on absorber plates with the aim of increasing heat exchange and subsequently increasing the efficiency of air heaters and solar dryers. However, the effect of using the metal of the sewing machine bobbin on the performance of these dryers has not been studied yet. Therefore, in this study, for the first time, this metal and also pipes containing PCM (phase change material) were used as a barrier... 

Lung cancer (LC) is the leading cause of cancer mortality so, the analysis of exhaled human breath has great significance for early non-invasive diagnosis. Poor selectivity and strong humidity are two bottlenecks for the application of gas sensors to exhaled breath analysis. The development of novel extractive phases for the analysis of exhaled breath by chromatography is therefore a lucrative object. Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) are among the 3D porous materials whose unique properties make them promising coatings for solid-phase microextraction (SPME). Selective enrichment of polar or nonpolar targets depends on the pore size and functional groups on the POSSs. Herein, we... 

Although the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction using interference screw is a well-accepted surgical procedure, patients still suffer graft failure in the initial rehabilitation phase. Graft fixation stability of a newly designed anatomical hybrid thread tapered interference screw (AHTTIS) was compared with a conventional standard one (CSIS) by conducting in-vitro mechanical tests. According to the CSIS manufacturer's instruction, eight tapered bone tunnels, matching AHTTIS geometry, and eight straight cylindrical tunnels were drilled in artificial bone blocks. Bovine tendon grafts were fixed using AHTTIS and CSIS in their corresponding bone tunnels. Each graft was subjected to... 

Freezing of gait (FOG) is a debilitating symptom in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), which may be associated with motor control impairments in tasks other than gait. This study aimed to examine whether symmetric and asymmetric bimanual coordination is impaired in PD with FOG (PD +FOG) patients and whether dual-task and drug phases may affect bimanual coordination in these patients. Twenty PD +FOG patients, 20 PD patients without FOG (PD –FOG) performed symmetric and asymmetric functional bimanual tasks (reach to and pick up a box and open a drawer to press a pushbutton inside it, respectively) under single-task and dual-task conditions. PD patients were evaluated during on- and... 

Two electrochemical sensors based on modified glassy carbon electrodes with carbon nanostructures as graphene (GCE–EG) and carbon nanotubes (GCE–CNT) were evaluated for morpholine analysis. The carbon nanostructures were obtained and characterized using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and cyclic voltammetry. All spectroscopic and microscopic techniques confirmed the procurement of graphene and CNT. The electrochemical studies proved the efficient behaviour of both electrodes GCE–EG and GCE–CNT in sensing and detection of morpholine via differential pulse voltammetry.... 

Simvastatin, a well-known antihyperlipidemic drug, has antibacterial activity against a broad range of bacteria, especially Staphylococcus aureus. In present study, a nanoemulsion gel-based formulation containing Simvastatin was developed for infected wound therapy. Therefore, different formulations of Simvastatin nanoemulsion were prepared. Based on droplet size, polydispersity index and zeta potential, the best nanoemulsion formulation containing Simvastatin was selected for development of nanoemulsion gel formulation of drug using carbomer 934 as gelling agent. Thermodynamic stability of Simvastatin nanoemulsion was assessed at different conditions. The in vitro antibacterial activity... 

Urban commuters and road authorities are interested in knowing how well their city can manage traffic conditions. It is challenging to make a fair comparison among global cities due to the absence of a consistent, publicly accessible and inexpensive framework. This study proposes a methodology to compare travel time and average speed in different cities. Large cities have a central core, in which many of the major activities take place. This core is called downtown or the central business district (CBD). In this study, a comparison is made by simulating the morning commute trips from origins outside to destinations inside the CBD. The proposed framework outlines how the city and the CBD... 

Chinese hamster ovary cells are the main cellular factories for production of a wide range of recombinant proteins in biopharmaceutical industry. Recombinant human Interferon beta-1a (rh-IFN β-1a), as a cytokine is broadly used to treat multiple sclerosis. In this work, the cell line producing rh-IFN β-1a was studied to improve cell density along with the specific expression. For this reason different cell culture experiments were done using different commercial serum-free media to find the appropriate media providing higher cell density. It was shown DMEMF12, DMEM:ProCHO5, and CHO-S-SFM II led to higher cell density and shorter doubling time. Next, using these media, fed-batch, and... 

Excitation Controlled Synchronous Generator-based Wind Turbine (ECSG WT) is a recently proposed Wind Turbine (WT) scheme that has not been fully investigated in detail. This paper intends to analyze the performance of the ECSG WT scheme and compare it with those of two mainstream WT schemes based on electrically excited synchronous generator, i.e., VSC-based full converter WT and diode bridge rectifier-based WT equipped with boost converter on its Direct Current (DC) link. The objective of this comparison is to demonstrate great potentials of ECSG WT to be considered in the wind industry. To do so, two successful Wind Turbine (WT) schemes in the market that are structurally close to ECSG WT... 

In this research, the potential of bismuth chromate (BCO), a new bismuth-based semiconductor belongs to the family of Bi2XO6 (X = Mo, W, or Cr), was introduced by a novel 1D/2D structure consist of BCO nanobelts and N2-freezed ultra-wrinkled graphitic carbon nitride (N–CN) nanosheets. To enhance intimate contact between BCO and N–CN (BCO/N–CN composite), surface oxygen vacancy (VO) was created as an efficient electron transfer highway using a simple alkaline-treatment-assisted method. Various characterization techniques, including XRD, FT-IR, EPR, FE-SEM, TEM, BET, DRS, PL, EIS, and photocurrent transient analyses were conducted to elucidate the physicochemical aspects of catalysts. The... 

Purpose: Alzheimer's disease (AD) starts years before its signs and symptoms including the dementia become apparent. Diagnosis of the AD in the early stages is important to reduce the speed of brain decline. Aim of the study: Identifying the alterations in the functional connectivity of the brain during the disease stages is among the main important issues in this regard. Therefore, in this study, the changes in the functional connectivity during the AD stages were analyzed. Materials and methods: By employing the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data and graph theory, weighted undirected graphs of the whole-brain and default mode network (DMN) network were investigated... 

We report on charge transport across self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of short tau peptides by probing the electron tunneling rates and quantum mechanical simulation. We measured the electron tunneling rates across SAMs of carboxyl-terminated linker molecules (C6H12O2S) and short cis-tau (CT) and trans-tau (TT) peptides, supported on template-stripped gold (AuTS) bottom electrode, with Eutectic Gallium-Indium (EGaIn)(EGaIn) top electrode. Measurements of the current density across thousands of AuTS/linker/tau//Ga2O3/EGaIn single-molecule junctions show that the tunneling current across CT peptide is one order of magnitude lower than that of TT peptide. Quantum mechanical simulation... 

The Mapping and Modeling Subcommittee of the US National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program convened a workshop in January 2017 to evaluate the present state of numerical models for the simulation of tsunamis generated by submarine or subaerial landslides. A range of benchmark tests were provided to participants, with three tests emphasized: (i) a laboratory submarine solid slide in a 2D horizontal tank, (ii) a laboratory submarine granular slide in a 1D flume, and (iii) a field case based on submarine slides which occurred in Port Valdez, AK during the 1964 Alaska earthquake. Nine landslide tsunami models configured with 21 different combinations of physical options were benchmarked,... 

Dust storms are a common phenomenon in arid and semi-arid regions in West Asia, which has led to high levels of PM10 in local and remote area. The Yazd city in Iran with a high PM10 level located downstream of dust sources in the Middle East and Central Asia. In this study, based on meteorological and PM10 monitoring data, backward trajectory modeling of air parcels related to dust events at Yazd station was performed using the HYSPLIT model in 2012–2019. The trajectory cluster analysis was used to identify the main dust transport pathways and wind systems. Three methods of Cross-referencing Backward Trajectory (CBT), Potential Source Contribution Function (PSCF) and Concentration Weighted...