Sharif Digital Repository

The fabrication of strong photocatalysts applied to the degradation of organic pollutants is necessary in environmental applications. In a single-stage method, acetate precursor and poly vinyl pyrolydine are used to produce ZnO nanostructures with various morphologies in annealing temperatures ranging from 300 to 900 °C. The physical properties of the prepared nanostructures were characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, BET, DRS, CHN analysis and PL spectroscopy. The SEM images exhibit a variety of the as-prepared hexagonal zinc oxides including wires, rods, particles and porous network of welded particles of ZnO nanoparticles. The results of the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue as an... 

Annealed and wrought AA5052 aluminum alloy was subjected to friction stir processing (FSP) without and with 3 vol pct TiO2 nanoparticles. Microstructural studies by electron backscattered diffraction and transmission electron microscopy showed the formation of an ultra-fine-grained structure with fine distribution of TiO2 nanoparticles in the metal matrix. Nanometric Al3Ti and MgO particles were also observed, revealing in-situ solid-state reactions between Al and Mg with TiO2. Tensile testing at different strain rates determined that FSP decreased the strain rate sensitivity and work hardening of annealed Al-Mg alloy without and with TiO2 nanoparticles, while opposite results were obtained... 

While the photocatalytic degradation of various organic compounds under UV light irradiation has been widely investigated, visible-light-induced photocatalytic degradation of low levels of pollutants such as dibenzothiophene (DBT) is occasionally reported. In the present work, lanthanide/polyethylene glycol-modified TiO2 (La/PEG/TiO2) has been successfully synthesized by a sol-gel method. The photocatalyst was characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, UV-Vis diffusive reflectance spectroscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray analysis. Moreover, the photocatalytic degradation of DBT under visible light irradiation is investigated for the... 

Many applications in wireless networks impose locally distributed traffic on the network. We consider the effect of traffic localization on throughput of large wireless networks in the scaling sense. We show that by careful exploitation of traffic localization, one can enhance the throughput of various schemes in wireless networks. Also, the important case of Small World traffic distribution in wireless networks is addressed. In this type of traffic, in addition to the local traffic, a non-negligible amount of global traffic should be handled by the network. It is shown that a non-negligible amount of network-wide traffic can be tolerated by network without any performance degradation in the... 

Abstract: In the current paper, the removal efficiency of metronidazole (MNZ) using a catalytic ozonation process (COP) in the presence of magnesium oxide nanocrystals, as a catalyst, was investigated in deionized water and compared with a sole ozonation process (SOP). The influence of several operational factors on both removal processes was evaluated: solution pH, MgO dosage, initial MNZ concentration, and reaction time. Biodegradability improvement, mineralization rate, oxidation intermediates, and toxicity were also studied for the COP. The results showed that MgO nanocrystals accelerated MNZ removal compared to the SOP. The optimum pH for both SOP and COP was obtained at 10 and optimum... 

The unique properties of graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets were integrated with the superparamagnetic characteristics of the CuFe2O4 nanoparticles to synthesize the magnetic graphene oxide (MGO), which was chemically modified with 3-amino propyl trimethoxy silane (APTMS) to functionalize the amine group on MGO (MGO-NH2). Afterward, MGO-NH2 was activated with glutaraldehyde (GLU) as a crosslinking agent to synthesize the functionalized MGO (fMGO) and its capability toward covalent Laccase immobilization was investigated. The comprehensive structural analysis using various characterization techniques, including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating... 

In this paper, the degradation of C5H4O2 "Furfural" in aqueous solution by photooxidation technology using UV, UV/H2O2, UV/H2O2/O2, UV/H2O2/Fe2+, UV/O2/Fe2+, O3, UV/O3 process and also oxidation by sodium hypochlorite was investigated in a lab-scale batch photo-reactor. To evaluate the performance of different processes, the efficiency of furfural degradation was studied by measuring the total organic carbon (TOC) throughout the experimentation. Results show that compare to other reactions studied in this research, the UV/H2O2 is a simple and effective process for furfural degradation and presence of Fe2+ ions (UV/H2O2/Fe2+) enhanced removal of furfural in solution. The influence of... 

The purpose of this study is to define a piecewise fatigue damage model (PFDM) for the prediction of damage in composite laminates under cyclic loading based on the continuum damage mechanics (CDM) model. Assuming that damage in fiber-reinforced plastic structures accumulates nonlinearly, a piecewise degradation growth function is defined and coupled with CDM and micromechanics approaches. The model divides the damage behavior of fiber, matrix, and fiber/matrix debonding at the ply scale, into three different stages. For generality, a fully multi-stage damage formulation on a single-ply level is employed. The unknown parameters of the PFDM are estimated according to obtained experimental... 

Sustainable development is significantly contributing the environmental degradation due to improvements in financial sector in One Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) region. Thus, the present research work constructs the sustainable development index for BRI. Afterwards, it unfolds the nexus of sustainable development-environmental degradation and also evaluates the role of financial development indicators in BRI economies. By utilizing the robust mean group, the present study quantifies the long-run marginal impacts of sustainable development, financial development indicators, energy consumption, and urban sprawl on environmental degradation, respectively. The marginal impacts infer an inverted... 

Crosstalk is the major limiting factor in DSL systems in terms of bit-rate or service coverage. Multiuser power control algorithms can be used to combat crosstalk degrading effects. The best ever known distributed power control solution is Iterative Water-filling (IWF). In this paper the performance of IWF in an ADSL system is considered in terms of offered rate-region and convergence speed. Then two novel modifications are proposed to accelerate convergence (usually 100-400%) without any performance loss. Therefore it suits better in practical applications, since each iteration needs re-initialization of the modem. © 2004IEEE  

A new constant false alarm rate (CFAR) processor is presented, that exhibits a noticeable detection performance in the presence of interfering targets, as well as an excellent false alarm rate (FAR) regulation at the clutter power transition regions. The presented CFAR processor, which is designed to work on the logarithmic amplified video signals, can also easily adapt itself to new environmental conditions. Furthermore, in the steady state, its performance does not depend on the background noise power. Simulation results show the obvious preference of the presented processor to the conventional GOCA-LOG/CFAR, regarding FAR regulation at the clutter power transition regions. Noncoherent... 

Purpose: Loss of skeletal muscle mass, which depends on a balance between protein synthesis and degradation, is common in sarcopenia, cachexia, and some diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the alterations and interactions of protein synthesis and degradation signaling components induced by 8-week endurance exercise training with a normal diet. Methods: Two exercise (n = 8) and control (n = 7) groups of Wistar rats were kept under standard conditions. The exercise group performed 8-week endurance running at 65–70% VO2max, 30–60 min, on a treadmill with 0° slope, and the rats of the control group were maintained under identical conditions except exercise training.... 

The current design procedure known as Force-Based Design (FBD) method, generally, does not lead to uniform distribution of drift, hysteretic energy, and ductility demands (or structural damage) along the height of the moment frames under strong earthquakes and these performance parameters can be much higher and concentrate damage on one or more of the lower structural stories. This paper presents an iterative wave propagation (WP) based technique to calculate the seismic nonlinear response of multistory buildings as an extension of the layered soil media, founded on bedrock and subjected to vertically propagating shear waves, which leads to the introduction of a new Lateral Load Pattern... 

Performance degradation remains as one of the primary limitations for practical applications of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. The performance of a PEM fuel cell stack is affected by many internal and external factors, such as fuel cell design and assembly, degradation of materials, operational conditions, and impurities or contaminants. Performance degradation is unavoidable, but the degradation rate can be minimized through a comprehensive understanding of degradation and failure mechanisms. In present work, a single PEM fuel cell for stationary applications is investigated. Membrane and catalyst layers (anode and cathode electrodes) are considered as critical components that... 

Carbon corrosion is a major degradation mechanism in cathode catalyst layers (CCL) of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells. Carbon corrosion (coupled with ionomer dissolution/degradation) induces severe changes in the CCL structure. In the present study, the inter-relation between the particle size of a packed sphere medium and the pore size distribution (PSD) is established. This relation is then used to predict the agglomerate size of the mix of Pt/C and ionomer in the catalyst ink, using experimentally measured PSD of the CCL. During cell degradation, the size of these agglomerates decreases; since, carbon corrosion causes carbon particles to decrease in size. Furthermore, as... 

The photocatalytic degradation of p-nitrophenol (PNP) using TiO2 particles immobilized on a fiberglass cloth was investigated in a novel design of a photo-impinging stream reactor. A spray painted method has been used for the coating process. The structural properties of the immobilized sample were examined using X-ray diffraction and a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The photocatalytic degradation results showed the good performance of the reactor. The flow regime within the reactor was characterized and modeled by applying a liquid residence time distribution. A compartment model consisting of four continuous stirred regions was assigned to describe the flow pattern in the reactor. A...