Sharif Digital Repository

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is a rich source of renewable energy. A non-destructive prediction method is needed to determine the content of water in the PEMFC. In the gas channel of a transparent PEMFC, water is detected with image processing. This method has a high computational cost and is sensitive to the initial position of the camera and ambient lighting. In this paper, the deep neural network (DNN) has been trained to learn the transparent PEMFC's labeled images as a way to determine the content of water, limit human interference and employed in a real-time process. This DNN model is a virtual sensor for measuring the water coverage ratio. To produce the label of images,... 

One of the most important problems in teleoperation systems is time delay and packet loss in the communication channel, which can affect transparency and stability. One way to overcome the time delay effects in a teleoperation system is to predict the master-side motion. In this way, when data is received in the slave side, it will be considered as the current position of the master robot and, thus, complete transparency could be achieved. The majority of the previous works regarding operator position prediction have considered known and constant time delay in the system; however, in the real applications, time delay is unknown and variable. In this paper, an adaptive online prediction... 

In recent years, the construction of high-rise buildings as an urban development strategy has been accepted in many megacities. High-rise buildings have positive as well as negative impacts on urban environments. Therefore, the environmental impact assessment of high-rise buildings for establishing strategies to ensure sustainable and resilient urban development is essential. In this study, the environmental impact of high-rise buildings with a resilient development mindset was assessed. Resilience mindset provides an approach for including the uncertainties and interdependence of systems and processes for planning new sustainable developments and assessment methods. The corresponding... 

TiO2 nanotubes (TNTs) were synthesized hydrothermally and modified by Cu2O using a sol-gel method to provide photocatalytic activity in visible light. Cellulose nanofiber (CNF)-based films were prepared by adding TiO2, TNTs, and Cu2O-modified TNT (TNT-Cu2O). The TiO2-based nanoparticles (TiO2, TNTs, and TNT-Cu2O) were uniformly distributed in the base polymer to make compatible and flexible films. The incorporation of nanoparticles significantly enhanced the UV-shielding properties of the film while slightly decreasing the transparency. Incorporating nanofillers improved the film's mechanical and water resistance properties depending on the nanoparticle type. The TNT-Cu2O-added CNF film... 

Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) are introduced to improve individuals' quality of life by offering a wide range of services. They collect a huge amount of data and exchange them with each other and the infrastructure. The collected data usually includes sensitive information about the users and the surrounding environment. Therefore, data security and privacy are among the main challenges in this industry. Blockchain, an emerging distributed ledger, has been considered by the research community as a potential solution for enhancing data security, integrity, and transparency in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). However, despite the emphasis of governments on the transparency... 

The diseases and disorders of the cornea may lead to blindness, and cornea transplantation has been an effective treatment in this regard. However, lack of cornea throughout the world makes this treatment difficult. Therefore, the first goal of the present study is to make a chitosan/gelatin hyaline film with NHS and EDC crosslinkers for transplanting the epithelial cells of the cornea. Two solutions of gelatin and chitosan were mixed homogeneously before crosslinking in ratios of 20/80, 30/70, 40/60, and 50/50 (Gel/Chi). After 24 hours, they were put in an oven to dry, then EDC and NHS were added to the mixture as crosslinker. Corneal epithelial cell morphology was assessed qualitatively... 

Poly(lactic acid) (PLA)/poly(vinyl acetate-. co-vinyl alcohol) [P(VAc-. co-VA)] blends as new transparent film packaging materials were prepared at various blend compositions and different vinyl alcohol contents. The blends and pure PLA were irradiated by gamma rays to investigate the extent of changes in the packaging material during gamma ray sterilization process. The miscibility of the blends was dependent on the blend composition and vinyl alcohol content; gamma irradiation had little effect on the extent of miscibility. The glass transition temperature of pure PLA and PLA/P(VAc-. co-VA) miscible blends reduced after irradiation. On the other hand in PLA/P(VAc-. co-VA) immiscible... 

Electrochemical exfoliation of graphite has recently attracted a big attention as a simple, fast and scalable method for the preparation of high quality graphene, but there are some drawbacks that hinder its application. Direct deposition is one of the most critical challenges that makes it difficult to deposit uniform, compact and large scale graphene thin films. This work develops a facile electrophoretic deposition route to fabricate exfoliated graphene (EG) film on Ag nanowires (NWs) networks with a controllable film thickness in nanometers scale. EG thin films are deposited with different applied potentials and times from an EG dispersion in N, N-dimethylformamide solvent. Since... 

In this study, the effects of TiO2 addition on the physical and photoelectrochemical properties of ZnO thin films have been investigated. The (TiO2)x-(ZnO)1-x nanocomposite thin films were dip-coated on both glass and indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated conducting glass substrates with various values of x, specifically 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.25 and 0.5. Optical properties of the samples were studied by UV-vis spectrophotometry in the range of 300-1100 nm. The optical spectra of the nanocomposite thin films showed high transparency in the visible region. The optical bandgap energy of the (TiO2)x-(ZnO)1-x films increased slightly with increasing values of x. The crystalline structure of the nanocomposite...