Search results for: Mahdi Sharif

Authors: Mohammad Mahdi Doustdar, Mohammad Mojtahedpoor

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The effects of flame-holder position, the ratio of flame holder diameter to combustion chamber diameter and injection angle on fuel propulsive droplets sizing and effective mass fraction have been studied by a cold flow. We named the mass of fuel vapor inside the flammability limit as the effective mass fraction. An empty cylinder as well as a flame-holder which are as a simulator for duct combustion has been considered. The airflow comes into the cylinder from one side and injection operation will be done by four nozzles which are located on the entrance of cylinder. To fulfill the calculations a modified version of KIVA-3V code which is a transient, three-dimensional, multi phase, multi component code for the analysis of chemically reacting flows with sprays, is used.

Keywords: KIVA-3V, flame-holder, duct combustion, effective mass fraction, mean diameter of droplets

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Authors: Abdulla Almulla, Wafaa Mahdi

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Building materials can make a significant contribution to the level of natural radioactivity in closed dwelling areas. Therefore, developing an expert system for monitoring the activity concentrations (ACs) of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORMs) existing in building materials is useful for limiting the population’s exposure to gamma radiation emitted from those materials. The present work not only is aimed at examining the indoor radon concentration emitted by the building materials that are originated from various countries but are commercially available in Kuwait, but also is aimed at developing an expert system for monitoring the radiation emitted from these materials and classifying it as normal (acceptable) or dangerous (unacceptable). This system makes it possible to always monitor any radiological risks to human health. When detecting high doses of radiation, the system gives warning messages.

Keywords: building materials, NORMs, HNBRA, radionuclides, activity concentrations, expert systems

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Authors: Helia Moayedi, Mahdi Moaidi

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Nowadays, the managing and planning of hospitals is facing many problems. Failure to recognize the main criteria for strategic management to ensure long-term hospital performance can lead to many health problems. To achieve this goal, a qualitative-quantitate method titled Delphi-Fuzzy has been applied. This strategy makes it possible for experts to screen among the most important criteria in strategic management. To conduct this operation, a statistical society consisting of 20 experts in Ahwaz hospitals has been questioned. The final model confirms the key criterions after three stages of Delphi. This model provides the possibility to focus on the basic criteria and can determine the organization’s main orientation.

Keywords: Delphi-fuzzy method, hospital management, long-term planning, qualitative-quantitate method, screening of strategic criteria, strategic planning

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Authors: Mahdi Asghari

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The cavitation phenomenon is the formation and production of micro-bubbles and eventually the bursting of the micro-bubbles inside the liquid fluid, which results in localized high pressure and temperature, causing physical and chemical fluid changes. This pressure and temperature are predicted to be 2000 atmospheres and 5000 °C, respectively. As a result of small bubbles bursting from this process, temperature and pressure increase momentarily and locally, so that the intensity and magnitude of these temperatures and pressures provide the energy needed to break the molecular bonds of heavy compounds such as fuel oil. In this paper, we study the theory of cavitation and the methods of cavitation production by acoustic and hydrodynamic methods and the necessary mechanical equipment and reactors for industrial application of the hydrodynamic cavitation method to break down the molecular bonds of the fuel oil and convert it into useful and economical products.

Keywords: Cavitation, Hydrodynamic Cavitation, Cavitation Reactor, Fuel Oil

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Authors: Mahdi Azizzadeh, Ali Nabizadeh

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This paper investigates whether ownership structure has significant effects on dividend policy and the percentage of cash dividend payout ratio in Iranian companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. We use a sample of 300 firm-years for 2010-2014. Results indicate that there is no significant relationship between family ownership and/or institutional ownership and dividend policy. Furthermore, there is no significant relationship between dividend policies in family-owned firms with high or low institutional ownership. However, our empirical test shows that family firms with a low level of institutional investors distribute more cash dividends on average than family firms with a high level of institutional ownership.

Keywords: family ownership, institutional ownership, dividend policy, dividend payout ratio

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Authors: Mahdi Alshamasin, Riad Al-Kasasbeh, Nikolay Korenevskiy

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We apply mathematical models for the interaction of the internal and biologically active points of meridian structures. Amongst the diseases for which reflex diagnostics are effective are those of the stomach disease. It is shown that use of fuzzy logic decision-making yields good results for the prediction and early diagnosis of gastrointestinal tract diseases, depending on the reaction energy of biologically active points (acupuncture points). It is shown that good results for the prediction and early diagnosis of diseases from the reaction energy of biologically active points (acupuncture points) are obtained by using fuzzy logic decision-making.

Keywords: acupuncture points, fuzzy logic, diagnostically important points (DIP), confidence factors, membership functions, stomach diseases

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Authors: Ahmad Sharif Ahmadi, Yoshitaka Kajita

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Kabul, the capital and largest city in Afghanistan has been experiencing a massive population expansion and fast economic development in last decade, in which urban land has increasingly expanded and formed a high informal development territory in the city. This paper investigates the urban land development direction based on the integrated urbanization trends in Kabul city since the last and the fastest ever urban land growth period (1999-2008), which is parallel with the establishment of the new government in Afghanistan. Considering the existing challenges in terms of informal settlements, squatter settlements, the population expansion of the city, and fast economic development, as well as the huge influx of returning refugees from neighboring countries, and the sprawl direction of urbanization of the Kabul city urban fringes, this research focuses on the possible urban land development direction and trends for the city. The paper studies the feasible future land development direction of Kabul city in the northern part called Shamali basin, in which district 17 is the gateway for future development. The area has much developable area including eight districts of Kabul province, and the vast area of Parwan and Kapisa provinces. The northern area of the Kabul city generally has favorable conditions for further urbanization from the city. It is a large and relatively flat area of area in the northern part of Kabul city, with ample water resources available from the Panjshir basin as a base principle of land development direction in the area.

Keywords: Kabul city, land development trends, urban land development, urbanization

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Authors: Mozhgan Chaichi, Farhad Sharif, Saeede Mazinani

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Polymer nanocomposites are a new class of materials for fabricating future multifunctional and lightweight structures. To obtain good mechanical, thermal and electrical properties, it is essential to achieve uniform dispersion of nanoparticles in polymer matrix. Alignment of nanoparticles in matrix can enhance mechanical, thermal, electrical and barrier properties of nanocomposites in oriented direction. Fe3O4 nanoparticles have generated huge activity in many areas of science and engineering due to its magnetic properties. Magnetic nanoparticles have been investigated for a wide range of applications in sensors, magnetic energy storage, environmental remediation, heterogeneous catalysts and drug delivery. The magnetic response from the Fe3O4 nanoparticles can facilitate with the alignment of nanofillers in a polymer matrix under magnetic field, aiming at fabricating composites with directional properties and functions. Here we report oriented nanocomposites based on Fe3O4 nanoparticles and poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA), which prepared via a facile aqueous solution by applying a low external magnetic field (750 G). A significant enhancement of mechanical properties, and especially toughness of nanofilms, of oriented PVA/ Fe3O4 nanocomposites is obtained at low nanoparticles loading. Orientation of nanoparticles can align polymer chains and enhance mechanical properties. For example, orientation of 0.1 wt. % Fe3O4 nanoparticles increase 31% toughness and 23% modulus of oriented nanocomposite in compare of pure films, which indicate good dispersion of nanoparticles and efficient load transfer between nanoparticles and matrix.

Keywords: magnetic nanoparticles, nanocomposites, toughness, orientation

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Authors: Mahdi Almaky

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The thermostabilization of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) is realized through the action of primary antioxidant such as phenolic antioxidants and secondary antioxidants as aryl phosphates. The efficiency of two secondary antioxidants, commercially named Irgafos 168 and Weston 399, was investigated using different physical, mechanical, spectroscopic, and calorimetric methods. The effect of both antioxidants on the processing stability and long term stability of HDPE produced in Ras Lanuf oil and gas processing Company were measured and compared. The combination of Irgafos 168 with Irganox 1010, as used in smaller concentration, results in a synergetic effect against thermo-oxidation and protect better than the combination of Weston 399 with Irganox 1010 against the colour change at processing temperature and during long term oxidation process.

Keywords: thermostabilization, high density polyethylene, primary antioxidant, phenolic antioxidant, Irgafos 168, Irganox 1010, Weston 399

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Authors: Mahdi Golriz

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The aim of this work is to estimate the change in molecular structure of linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) during peroxide modification can be detected by a simple rheological method. For this purpose a commercial grade LLDPE (Exxon MobileTM LL4004EL) was reacted with different doses of dicumyl peroxide (DCP). The samples were analyzed by size-exclusion chromatography coupled with a light scattering detector. The dynamic shear oscillatory measurements showed a deviation of the δ-׀G ׀٭curve from that of the linear LLDPE, which can be attributed to the presence of long-chain branching (LCB). By the use of a simple rheological method that utilizes melt rheology, transformations in molecular architecture induced on an originally linear low density polyethylene during the early stages of reactive modification were indicated. Reasonable and consistent estimates are obtained, concerning the degree of LCB, the volume fraction of the various molecular species produced in peroxide modification of LLDPE.

Keywords: linear low-density polyethylene, peroxide modification, long-chain branching, rheological method

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Authors: Mahdi Asghari Ozma, Fatemeh Aghamohammadzadeh, Mahin Ahangar Oskouee

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In late 2019, the people of the world were involved with a new infection by the coronavirus, named SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19), which disseminated around the world quickly. This infection has the ability to affect various systems of the body, including respiratory, gastrointestinal, urinary, and hematology, which can be transmitted by various body samples in different ways. To control this fast-transmitted infection by preventing its transmission to other people, rapid diagnosis is vital, which can be done by examining the patient's clinical symptoms and also using various serological, molecular, and radiological methods. Symptoms caused by COVID-19 in patients include fever, cough, sore throat, headache, fatigue, shortness of breath, loss of taste or smell, skin rash, myalgia, and conjunctivitis. These clinical features were appearing gradually in different time periods from the onset of the infection, and patients showed varied and new symptoms at different times, which show the variety of symptoms over time during the spread of the infection.

Keywords: COVID-19, diagnosis, symptom, variation, novel coronavirus

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Authors: (Ted) Edward Holmberg, Mahdi Abdelguerfi, Elias Ioup

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This research details a coverage measure for evaluating the effectiveness of observer node placements in a spatial bipartite network. This coverage measure can be used to optimize the configuration of stationary or mobile spatially oriented observer nodes, or a hybrid of the two, over time in order to fully utilize their capabilities. To demonstrate the practical application of this approach, we construct a SpatioTemporal Bipartite Network (STBN) using real-time crime center (RTCC) camera nodes and NOPD calls for service (CFS) event nodes from New Orleans, La (NOLA). We use the coverage measure to identify optimal placements for moving mobile RTCC camera vans to improve coverage of vulnerable areas based on temporal patterns.

Keywords: coverage measure, mobile node dynamics, Monte Carlo simulation, observer nodes, observable nodes, spatiotemporal bipartite knowledge graph, temporal spatial analysis

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Authors: Mahdi Alkaeed, Adeel Ehsan

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Enterprise information systems (EIS) act as the backbone of organizations that belong to different domains. These systems not only play a major role in the efficient usage of resources and time but also throw light on the future roadmap for the enterprise. In today's rapidly expanding world of business and technology, enterprise systems from various heterogenous environments have to exchange information at some point, be it within the same organization or between different organizations. This reality strengthens the importance of interoperability between these systems, which is one of the key enablers of systems collaboration. Both information technology infrastructure and business processes have to be aligned with each other to achieve this effect. This will be difficult to attain if traditional tightly coupled architecture is used. Instead, a more loosely coupled service-oriented architecture has to be used. That would enable an effective interoperability level between different EIS. This paper discusses and presents the current work that has been done in the field of EIS interoperability. Along the way, it also discusses the challenges, solutions to tackle those challenges presented in the studied literature, and limitations, if any.

Keywords: enterprise systems interoperability, collaboration and integration, service-based architecture, open system architecture

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Authors: Ferinar Moaidi, Mahdi Moaidi

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Environmental issues and the ever-increasing in demand of electrical energy make it necessary to have distributed generation (DG) resources in the power system. In this research, in order to realize the goals of reducing losses and improving the voltage profile in a microgrid, the allocation and sizing of DGs have been used. The proposed Genetic Algorithm (GA) is described from the array of artificial intelligence methods for solving the problem. The algorithm is implemented on the IEEE 33 buses network. This study is presented in two scenarios, primarily to illustrate the effect of location and determination of DGs has been done to reduce losses and improve the voltage profile. On the other hand, decisions made with the one-level assumptions of load are not universally accepted for all levels of load. Therefore, in this study, load modelling is performed and the results are presented for multi-levels load state.

Keywords: distributed generation, genetic algorithm, microgrid, load modelling, loss reduction, voltage improvement

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Authors: Mahdi Amne Elahi, Marcus Koch, Peter Plapper

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Due to the demand of miniaturizing in automotive industry, the application of laser welding is quite promising. The current study focused on laser micro-welding of CuSn6 bronze and nickel wire for a miniature electromechanical hybrid component. Due to the advantages of laser welding, the welding can be tailored specifically for the requirements of the part. Scanning electron and optical microscopy were implemented to study the microstructure and tensile-shear test was selected to represent the mechanical properties. Different welding sides, beam oscillations, and speeds have been investigated to optimize the tensile-shear load and microstructure. The results show that the mechanical properties and microstructure of the joint is highly under the influence of the mentioned parameters. Due to the lack of intermetallic compounds, the soundness of the joint is achievable by manipulating the geometry of the weld seam and minimize weld defects.

Keywords: bronze, laser micro-welding, microstructure, nickel, tensile shear test

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Authors: Seyed Mahdi Rafiaei

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In this investigation, red emitting Eu³⁺ doped YVO₄ nano-phosphors have been synthesized via the facile combustion method using isobutyl nitrite and urea fuels, individually. Field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) images, high resolution transmission electron microscope (TEM) images and X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra reveal that the mentioned fuels can be used successfully to synthesis YVO₄: Eu³⁺ nano-particles. Interestingly, the fuels have a large effect on the size and morphology of nano-phosphors as well as luminescence properties. Noteworthy the use of isobutyl nitrite provides an average particle size of 65 nm, while the employment of urea, results in the formation of larger particles and also provides higher photoluminescence emission intensity. The improved luminescence performance is attributed to the condition of chemical reaction via the combustion synthesis and the size of synthesized phosphors.

Keywords: phosphors, combustion, fuels, luminescence, nanostructure

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Authors: Mahdi Bazarganigilani

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Aortic enlargement, also known as an aortic aneurysm, can occur when the walls of the aorta become weak. This disease can become deadly if overlooked and undiagnosed. In this paper, a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system was introduced to accurately diagnose aortic enlargement from chest x-ray images. An enhanced convolutional neural network (CNN) was employed and then trained by transfer learning by using three different main areas from the original images. The areas included the left lung, heart, and right lung. The accuracy of the system was then evaluated on 1001 samples by using 4-fold cross-validation. A promising accuracy of 90% was achieved in terms of the F-measure indicator. The results showed using different areas from the original image in the training phase of CNN could increase the accuracy of predictions. This encouraged the author to evaluate this method on a larger dataset and even on different CAD systems for further enhancement of this methodology.

Keywords: computer-aided diagnosis systems, aortic enlargement, chest X-ray, image processing, convolutional neural networks

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Authors: Seyed Mahdi Jameii, Arash Nikdel, Seyed Mohsen Jameii

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Energy efficiency is an important issue in the field of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). So, minimizing the energy consumption in this kind of networks should be an essential consideration. Sleep/wake scheduling mechanism is an efficient approach to handling this issue. In this paper, we propose a Genetic Algorithm-based Sleep-Wake up Area Coverage protocol called GA-SWAC. The proposed protocol puts the minimum of nodes in active mode and adjusts the sensing radius of each active node to decrease the energy consumption while maintaining the network’s coverage. The proposed protocol is simulated. The results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed protocol in terms of coverage ratio, number of active nodes and energy consumption.

Keywords: wireless sensor networks, genetic algorithm, coverage, connectivity

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Authors: Tamer Mokhtar Mohamed Ahmed

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The metalwork industry during the Mamluk period received the attention and care of the sultans and princes, thus helping in the prosperity of this industry during this period. We are fortunate that a huge number of metal artifacts from the industry of Egypt and Syria of this period have come down to us, many of which are preserved in Egyptian and international museums as well as private collections. Characterized by great diversity in its forms, sizes and functions, including the decorative designs executed on them, the artifacts reflected the extent of artistic creativity that characterized the arts in the two Mamluk period. This research paper aims to study three copper dishes from the Mamluk Circassian period and the rare documentary texts on them that have not been previously studied. These dishes date back to different decades from the 9th AH/15 AD century. One of them bears the name of Sultan Al-Muayyad Shaikh, and the second is the name of one of the great Mamluk princes in the Mamluk Circassian period, Prince Yashbak min Mahdi. The third dish is attributed to Prince Jan Balat Al-Ashrafie.

Keywords: metalwork, dishes, decorative, calligraphy, Mamluk Arts

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Authors: Mahdi Farajzadeh Ajirlou

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Ordinary fetal brain development can be considered by in vivo attractive reverberation imaging (MRI) from the 18th gestational week (GW) to term and depends fundamentally on T2-weighted and diffusion-weighted (DW) arrangements. The foremost commonly suspected brain pathologies alluded to fetal MRI for assist assessment are ventriculomegaly, lost corpus callosum, and anomalies of the posterior fossa. Brain division could be a crucial to begin with step in neuroimage examination. Within the case of fetal MRI it is especially challenging and critical due to the subjective introduction of the hatchling, organs that encompass the fetal head, and irregular fetal movement. A few promising strategies have been proposed but are constrained in their execution in challenging cases and in realtime division. Fetal MRI is routinely performed on a 1.5-Tesla scanner without maternal or fetal sedation. The mother lies recumbent amid the course of the examination, the length of which is ordinarily 45 to 60 minutes. The accessibility and continuous approval of standardizing fetal brain development directions will give critical devices for early discovery of impeded fetal brain development upon which to oversee high-risk pregnancies.

Keywords: brain, fetal, MRI, imaging

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Authors: Mahdi Sadeghian, Mahmoud Hassanlourad, Alireza Ardakani, Reza Dinarvand

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In this research, the behavior of monopiles, under lateral loads, was investigated with vertical and oblique piles by Finite Element Method. In engineering practice when soil-pile interaction comes to the picture some simplifications are applied to reduce the design time. As a simplified replacement of soil and pile interaction analysis, pile could be replaced by a column. The height of the column would be equal to the free length of the pile plus a portion of the embedded length of it. One of the important factors studied in this study was that columns with an equivalent length (free length plus a part of buried depth) could be used instead of soil and pile modeling. The results of the analysis show that the more internal friction angle of the soil increases, the more the bearing capacity of the soil is achieved. This additional length is 6 to 11 times of the pile diameter in dense soil although in loose sandy soil this range might increase.

Keywords: Depth of fixity, Lateral bearing capacity, Oblique pile, Pile group, Soil-structure interaction

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Authors: Amin Abbasi, Mahdi Asghari Ozma

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Background and Objective:Enterococcus faecium is a normal flora of the human gastrointestinal tract that causes infection in the host body under conditions such as biofilm formation, in which the use of antibiotics causes changes in these pathogenic mechanisms. In this study, we aimed to evaluate comprehensively the changes in E.faecium when exposed to sub-MIC of the gentamicin,especiallythe biofilm formation rate. Materials and Methods: For this study, the keywords "Enterococcus faecium ", "Biofilm", and "Gentamicin" in the databases PubMed, Google Scholar, Sid, and MagIran between 2015 and 2021 were searched, and 14 articles were chosen, studied, and analyzed. Results: Gentamicin significantly had increased biofilm formation in most of the isolates in the studies. Increased expression of the genes (efaA and esp) and proteins involved in biofilm formation and decreased expression of the genes (gelE and cylA) involved in spreading and proteins involved in metabolism and cell division in E.faecium were the most significant cause of the biofilm formation, which were increased in sub-MIC gentamicin-treated situation. Conclusion: Inadequate use of gentamicin intensify biofilm formation of E.faecium, which can make the treatment of infections caused by this bacterium difficult.

Keywords: biofilm, enterococcus faecium, gentamicin, proteome

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Authors: Mahdi Shamsi, Tohid Yousefi Rezaii, Siavash Eftekharifar

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Compressed sensing (CS) is a new powerful mathematical theory concentrating on sparse signals which is widely used in signal processing. The main idea is to sense sparse signals by far fewer measurements than the Nyquist sampling rate, but the reconstruction process becomes nonlinear and more complicated. Common dilemma in sparse signal recovery in CS is the lack of knowledge about sparsity order of the signal, which can be viewed as model order selection procedure. In this paper, we address the problem of sparsity order estimation in sparse signal recovery. This is of main interest in situations where the signal sparsity is unknown or the signal to be recovered is approximately sparse. It is shown that the proposed method also leads to some kind of signal denoising, where the observations are contaminated with noise. Finally, the performance of the proposed approach is evaluated in different scenarios and compared to an existing method, which shows the effectiveness of the proposed method in terms of order selection as well as denoising.

Keywords: compressed sensing, data denoising, model order selection, sparse representation

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Authors: Zabihullah Mahdi, Khwaja Naweed Seddiqi, Shigeo Honma

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Through many types of research and practical studies, it has been identified that the average oil recovery factor of a petroleum reservoir is about 30 to 35 %. This study is focused on enhanced oil recovery by laboratory experiment and graphical investigation based on Buckley-Leverett theory. Horizontal oil displacement by water, in a petroleum reservoir is analyzed under the Buckley-Leverett frontal displacement theory. The extraction and prerequisite of this theory are based and pursued focusing on the key factors that control displacement. The theory is executable to the waterflooding method, which is generally employed in petroleum engineering reservoirs to sustain oil production recovery, and the techniques for evaluating the average water saturation behind the water front and the oil recovery factors in the reservoirs are presented. In this paper, the Buckley-Leverett theory handled to an experimental model and the amount of recoverable oil are investigated to be over 35%. The irreducible water saturation, viz. connate water saturation, in the reservoir is also a significant inspiration for the recovery.

Keywords: Buckley-Leverett theory, waterflooding technique, petroleum engineering, immiscible displacement

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Authors: Soroush Maddah, Houra Asgarian, Mahdi Navidbakhsh

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In the present paper, the problem of pulsatile micropolar blood flow through an elastic artery has been studied. An arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) formulation for the governing equations has been produced to model the fully-coupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI) and has been solved numerically using finite difference scheme by exploiting a mesh generation technique which leads to a uniformly spaced grid in the computational plane. Effect of the variations of cardiac output and wall artery module of elasticity on blood pressure with blood-pressure regulating drugs like Atenolol has been determined. Also, a numerical model has been produced to define precisely the effects of various dosages of a drug on blood flow in arteries without the numerous experiments that have many mistakes and expenses.

Keywords: arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian, Atenolol, fluid structure interaction, micropolar fluid, pulsatile blood flow

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Authors: Seyed Mahdi Rafiaei

Abstract:

In this investigation, firstly Eu3+ doped YVO4 phosphor was synthesized using solid-state method. Then silica was coated on the surface of particles via sol-gel method. To study the influence of SiO2 addition on microstructure and photoluminescence characteristics of YVO4:4% Eu3+ phosphor materials, we employed X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM), High-Resolution Transmitted Electron Microscope (HRTEM), Focused Ion Beam (FIB), Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET), Inductively coupled plasma (ICP), Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) and Photoluminescence (PL) equipments. The XPS characterization confirmed the formation of Y–O–Si and V-O-Si bondings between YVO4:Eu3+ phosphor particle and SiO2 coating. In addition, it was found that although the amounts of added SiO2 were not remarkable, but it resulted in enhancement of emission intensity of the phosphors. Finally by employing ESR analysis, it was shown that surface oxygen vacancies, result in reduction of V5+ to the lower valence state of V4+.

Keywords: solid state, sol-gel, silica, coating, photoluminescence

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Authors: Mahdi Daghmhehci Firoozjaei, Minchang Kim, Dima Alhadidi

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In this paper, we present a power profiling model for smart grid consumers based on real time load data acquired smart meters. It profiles consumers’ power consumption behaviour using the dynamic time warping (DTW) clustering algorithm. Due to the invariability of signal warping of this algorithm, time-disordered load data can be profiled and consumption features be extracted. Two load types are defined and the related load patterns are extracted for classifying consumption behaviour by DTW. The classification methodology is discussed in detail. To evaluate the performance of the method, we analyze the time-series load data measured by a smart meter in a real case. The results verify the effectiveness of the proposed profiling method with 90.91% true positive rate for load type clustering in the best case.

Keywords: power profiling, user privacy, dynamic time warping, smart grid

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Authors: Arefeh Lotfi, Mahdi Babaei, Ayda Mashhadizadeh, Samira Nikpour, Morteza Bagheri

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The main objective of this study is to investigate the key factors in accidents’ severity at rail-road level crossings. The data required for this study is obtained from both accident and inventory database of Iran Railways during 2009-2015. The Ordered Probit model is developed using SPSS software to identify the significant factors in the accident severity at rail-road level crossings. The results show that 'train speed', 'vehicle type' and 'weather' are the most important factors affecting the severity of the accident. The results of these studies assist to allocate resources in the right place. This paper suggests mandating the regulations to reduce train speed at rail-road level crossings in bad weather conditions to improve the safety of rail-road level crossings.

Keywords: rail-road level crossing, ordered probit model, accidents’ severity, significant factors

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Authors: Seyed Mohammad Mahdi Zamani, Kamran Behdinan

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In this study, a multiscale framework is performed to model the strength of Nextel fibers in presence of an atomistic scale pre-crack at finite temperatures. The bridging cell method (BCM) is the multiscale technique applied in this study, which decomposes the system into the atomistic, bridging and continuum domains; solves the whole system in a finite element framework; and incorporates temperature dependent calculations. Since Nextel is known to be structurally stable and retain 70% of its initial strength up to 1100°C; simulations are conducted at both of the room temperatures, 25°C, and fire temperatures, 1200°C. Two cases are modeled for a pre-crack present in either phases of alumina or mullite of the Nextel structure. The materials’ response is studied with respect to deformation behavior and ultimate tensile strength. Results show different crack growth trends for the two cases, and as the temperature increases, the crack growth resistance and material’s strength decrease.

Keywords: Nextel fibers, multiscale modeling, pre-crack, ultimate tensile strength

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Authors: Hafiz Muhammad Adeel Sharif, Tian Li, Changping Li

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Recently, the emission of nitrogen-sulphur oxides (NOₓ, SO₂) has become a global issue and causing serious threats to health and the environment. Catalytic reduction of NOx and SOₓ gases into friendly gases is considered one of the best approaches. However, regeneration of the catalyst, higher bond-dissociation energy for NOx, i.e., 150.7 kcal/mol, escape of intermediate gas (N₂O, a greenhouse gas) with treated flue-gas, and limited activity of catalyst remains a great challenge. Here, a cheap, binderless naturally-extracted bass-wood thin carbon electrode (TCE) is presented, which shows excellent catalytic activity towards NOx reduction. The bass-wood carbonization at 900 ℃ followed by thermal activation in the presence of CO2 gas at 750 ℃. The thermal activation resulted in an increase in epoxy groups on the surface of the TCE and enhancement in the surface area as well as the degree of graphitization. The TCE unique 3D strongly inter-connected network through hierarchical micro/meso/macro pores that allow large electrode/electrolyte interface. Owing to these characteristics, the TCE exhibited excellent catalytic efficiency towards NOx (~83.3%) under ambient conditions and enhanced catalytic response under pH and sulphite exposure as well as excellent stability up to 168 hours. Moreover, a temperature-dependent activity trend was found where the highest catalytic activity was achieved at 80 ℃, beyond which the electrolyte became evaporative and resulted in a performance decrease. The designed electrocatalyst showed great potential for effective NOx-reduction, which is highly cost-effective, green, and sustainable.

Keywords: electrocatalyst, NOx-reduction, bass-wood electrode, integrated wet-scrubbing, sustainable

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