Sharif Digital Repository

One of the most conventional and energy efficient methods to improve the engineering properties of concrete is the utilization of waste materials and by-products. Among agricultural wastes, rice husk ash (RHA) has exhibited the greatest potential to enhance the characteristics of cement mixtures. However, the investigations on the properties and performance of RHA are slim compared to its potential advantages and few systematic studies can be found in the literature regarding parameters influencing the chemo-physical and microstructural characteristics of RHA along with its performance in cement mixtures. In this study, the effect of retention time of rice husk is systematically... 

The original version of this Article omitted an affiliation for Ali Ahmad. The correct affiliations for Ali Ahmad are listed below: School of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology, H-12, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Gujrat, Hafiz Hayat Campus, Gujrat, Pakistan. © 2021, The Author(s)  

The original version of this Article omitted an affiliation for Ali Ahmad. The correct affiliations for Ali Ahmad are listed below: School of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology, H-12, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Gujrat, Hafiz Hayat Campus, Gujrat, Pakistan. © 2021, The Author(s)  

The carbon dioxide (CO2) separation can be enhanced by using modified materials like a deep eutectic solvent (DES) modified mesoporous silica SBA-15 in polymeric support i.e polysulfone via mixed matrix membranes (MMMs). The pure SBA-15 and DES are potential candidates for the CO2 capturing and their combination has not been reported yet. In this work, a fresh DES was synthesized by combining equal concentrations of Decanoic acid and choline chloride by mass. MMMs were fabricated by DES functionalized SBA-15 (DES-SBA) filler. The DES-SBA-based polymeric MMMs of different compositions, from 5% to 20% with the difference of five each, were developed and subjected to the gas permeation analysis... 

Voltage source converter based multi - terminal DC grids (VSC - MTDC) are widely used for integration of renewable resources. Control of these grids requires vector control method, which includes inner and outer current controllers, tuning of these controllers is very important. Conventionally used tuning methods consider approximated linear model to tune the proportional - integral (PI) parameters of voltage source converter (VSC) which fails to produce optimum disturbance rejection results. In this research an Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) technique is used to get the optimum parameters of inner and outer power control layers for multi - terminal DC system. ACO is applied simultaneously on... 

Voltage source converter based multi - terminal DC grids (VSC - MTDC) are widely used for integration of renewable resources. Control of these grids requires vector control method, which includes inner and outer current controllers, tuning of these controllers is very important. Conventionally used tuning methods consider approximated linear model to tune the proportional - integral (PI) parameters of voltage source converter (VSC) which fails to produce optimum disturbance rejection results. In this research an Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) technique is used to get the optimum parameters of inner and outer power control layers for multi - terminal DC system. ACO is applied simultaneously on... 

Multiple blood collection from an adult Danio rerio is important in most of metabolic studies. The method allows researcher to profile the metabolic dynamic from an individual fishes, which contribute to a high resolution of dataset. Currently, several devices have been developed for the purpose of blood withdrawal from Danio rerio. Limited accessibility to it hindering the log phase development of Danio rerio based studies. This study shows that the multiple blood collection from an adult Danio rerio can be achieved to the highest survival rate (94.75 %) using the in-house fabricated Z-fish needle. The fabricated device is cheaper and can be accessible in any developing Danio rerio... 

Mango fruit borer (MFB) is a significant pest that damages mango fruits and leaves. This study explores farmers’ perceptions of the mango fruit borer and evaluates management practices. Survey findings indicated that 48% of mango growers believed MFB attacks occur during April-May, while 30% identified May-June as the peak season. Additionally, 84% of mango growers believed MFB affects fruits, while only 2% think it also targeted leaves. Most mango growers (78%) preferred chemical methods to manage MFB, with 40% using bifenthrin, 28% using emamectin benzoate, and only 8% applying imidacloprid. Experiments evaluating MFB’s preference for different mango varieties revealed that nearly all... 

This article explores the dynamics of nanofluids consisting of copper (TiO2) nanoparticles suspended in water, as they interact with sensor surfaces between two parallel squeezing plates with porous characteristics. This research specifically targets applications involving enhanced heat transfer and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) control in nanofluid systems. The primary aim is to analyze the effects of nanoparticle aggregation and non-aggregation on sensor surfaces, considering MHD formations and heat transfer in the energy and momentum equations. The research adopts a steady-state fluid condition and utilizes similarity transformations to convert partial differential equations into more... 

Over the years, the fruit industry has been entirely dependent on artificial ripening of fruits to satisfy the demands of the consumers. Both in nutrition and economics, fruits play a very critical role, and hence farmers and vendors need to keep the supply optimal. In developing countries, nearly 70–80% of fruits are artificially ripened using different agents, making chemical-induced ripening a health hazard and presenting a challenge for fruit sellers in maintaining safe and healthy practices. The review offers an insight into the benefits and risks associated with ripening agents while also stressing the need to explore newer, safer, and environmentally friendly ripening methods. This... 

Cucumber mosaic disease (CMD), caused by Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) is the most devastating disease that can cause 100% losses in severe cases. CMV transmission is accomplished through mechanical or contact inoculation and sometimes through aphid in stylet borne manner. After entry into the host, CMV interrupts with normal physiology of cucumber plants resulting in mosaic patterns on leaves, reduction in leaf area leading to reduced yield. This review paper aims at assessment of yield losses caused by CMV, efficient disease diagnosis, finding the existing resistance sources and breeding potential for sustainable disease management. Various methods of diagnosis, symptomology, ecology,... 

The movement style is an adequate descriptor of different personalities. While many studies investigate the relationship between apparent personality and high-level motion qualities in humans, similar research for animal characters still needs to be done. The variety in animals' skeletal configurations and texture complicates their pose estimation process. Our affect analysis framework includes a workflow for pose extraction in animal characters and a parameterization of the high-level animal motion descriptors inspired by Laban movement analysis. Using a data set of quadruped walk cycles, we prove the display of typologies in cartoon animal characters, reporting the point-biserial... 

Focusing on the Lower Bari Doab Canal (LBDC) command area, characterized by its heavy reliance on agriculture, this study addresses the critical issue of groundwater table fluctuations in response to diverse pumping scenarios. Herein, we comprehensively evaluated the dynamic interplay between crop water requirements and groundwater pumping within the expansive canvas of the LBDC, which is facing water shortages. Using the Penman–Monteith equation, we calculated annual average evapotranspiration for major crops—wheat, maize, cotton, rice, and sugarcane. Three-dimensional MODFLOW-based numerical modeling was used to analyze the dynamics of groundwater regimes. MODFLOW was calibrated from 2010... 

In this study, a minimum distance classification and forward feature selection technique are joined to determine the relationship between weather conditions and the increase of the risk of type A acute aortic dissection (AAD) events in Berlin. The results demonstrate that changes in the amount of cloudiness and air temperature are the most representative weather predictors among the studied parameters. A discrimination surface was developed for the prediction of AAD events 6 h ahead, and it is found that, under a specific amount of cloudiness and air temperature, the risk of AAD events in Berlin increases about 20 %. © 2015, ISB  

In this study, a minimum distance classification and forward feature selection technique are joined to determine the relationship between weather conditions and the increase of the risk of type A acute aortic dissection (AAD) events in Berlin. The results demonstrate that changes in the amount of cloudiness and air temperature are the most representative weather predictors among the studied parameters. A discrimination surface was developed for the prediction of AAD events 6 h ahead, and it is found that, under a specific amount of cloudiness and air temperature, the risk of AAD events in Berlin increases about 20 %  

Smart bio-based shape memory polymers with high performance and fast response have the exciting potential to meet the growing need in biomedical applications. In this study, novel fast response UV-curable shape memory polyurethane acrylates (SMPUAs) comprising polycaprolactone diols (PCL-Diol), hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) and hydroxy-methyl methacrylate (HEMA) were synthesized by two-step bulk polymerization. Two series of PUAs with almost the same amount of hard segment content (HSC) were prepared with varying soft-segment molecular weight (2000, 3000, and 4000 g/mol) and different molar ratios of constituents. A mono-functional reactive diluent was used to control HSC and reduce the... 

The multifunctional nanostructures with superparamagnetic and luminescent properties undergo revolution in the field of bio-nanotechnology. In this article, we reported a facile and efficient one-step modified co-precipitation method to load superparamagnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticle on oxidized nanodiamond (Ox-ND). Subsequently, the as-prepared Ox-ND/Fe3O4 hybrid nanoparticle was surface functionalized with vinyltrimethoxysilane (VTMS) to enhance its compatibility with organic media. The structure, morphology, magnetic, and optical properties of the nanohybrid were systematically investigated. The results confirmed successful loading of crystalline Fe3O4 on the surface of Ox-ND. Ox-ND/Fe3O4... 

High-performance textile-based energy storage systems with high energy and power densities alongside remarkable cyclic life are always at the leading edge of wearable electronics. Herein, commercial cotton fabrics (CCFs) are used as the substrates for the fabrication of ultra-light, high-performance wearable supercapacitors. Hierarchical microstructures of nickel-cobalt sulfide (Ni-Co-S) decorated single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are used as the positive supercapacitor electrodes. Enhanced electrochemical performance with a specific gravimetric capacity of 331 Cg−1 (at a current density of 0.3 Ag−1) is obtained from these Ni-Co-S@SWCNT@CCF electrodes. Besides, composites of graphene... 

Given a terrain and a query point p on or above it, we want to count the number of triangles of terrain that are visible from p. We present an approximation algorithm to solve this problem. We implement the algorithm and then we run it on the real data sets. The experimental results show that our approximation solution is very close to the real solution and compare to the other similar works, the running time of our algorithm is better than their algorithm. The analysis of time complexity of algorithm is also presented. Also, we consider visibility testing problem, where the goal is to test whether p and a given triangle of train are visible or not. We propose an algorithm for this problem... 

This paper reports transistor-level design of a new continuous-time (CT), discrete-time (DT) cascaded sigma delta modulator (SDM). The combination of a CT first stage and a DT second stage was utilized to realize a high speed, high resolution analog-to-digital converter (ADC). Power consumption of CT first stage is lowered by optimizing the gain coefficients of CT integrators in a feedforward topology. Moreover double sampling (CDS) was used in second stage integrators to further reduce power consumption. Proposed new SDM is simulated in 0.18μm CMOS technology and achieves 84dB dynamic range for a 10MHz signal bandwidth. Total analog power dissipation measured was 44mW