Sharif Digital Repository

Simulation has been shown to be one of the most powerful tools in many areas of the health-care system, a system which attracted the attention of researchers due to its intricacy. The main goal of this study is to evaluate the patients' flow in an emergency department (ED). Discrete event simulation (DES)has been used as the core of this research so that it offers various ways to reduce the length of stay (LOS)of patients in different segments of ED by assessing various scenarios. In particular, a new approach for verification of the simulated model will be discussed. This study reports on the results that extracted from a case study on patient record data in one of the EDs located in Tehran... 

Quality of Service (QoS) of Web services plays an essential role in selecting Web services by consumers. The dynamic QoS attributes of Web services have different values for different users. Therefore, the value of many Web services' QoS features for many users are undetermined, and these values should be predicted. The collaborative filtering (CF) method is one of the most successful approaches to predict these values. CF-based methods use the QoS values contributed by the other users for prediction and, consequently, the values contributed by unreliable users can decrease the accuracy of prediction. To utilize the reputation of users can be regarded as one of the conventional approaches to... 

Shear lag phenomenon has long been taken into consideration in various structural codes; however, the AISC provisions have not proposed any specific equation to calculate the shear lag ratio in some cases such as fillet-welded connections of front-to-front double channel sections. Moreover, those equations and formulas proposed by structural codes are based on the studies that were conducted on riveted and bolted connections, and can be applied to single channel sections whilst using them for fillet-welded double channels would be extremely conservative due to the symmetrical shape and the fact that bending moments will not develop in the gusset plate, resulting in less stress concentration.... 

Let δ be a (d-1)-dimensional simplicial complex and let h(δ)=(h0,h1,...,hd) be its h-vector. A recent result of Murai and Terai guarantees that if δ satisfies Serre's condition (Sr), then (h0,h1,...,hr) is an M-vector and hr+hr+1+...+hd is nonnegative. In this article, we extend the result of Murai and Terai by giving r extra necessary conditions. More precisely, we prove that if δ satisfies Serre's condition (Sr), then iihr+i+1ihr+1+...+i+d-rihd, 0≤i≤r≤d, are all nonnegative  

In this paper, electrical wire explosion (EWE) was used as a simple, clean, in situ method to synthesise nano zero-valent iron (nZVI) particles in liquid mediums. The structural and physical properties of the synthesised nZVI particles were characterised by x-ray diffraction, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller analysis, field emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The synthesised spherical nanoparticles, at a specific size of 10–50 nm, possessed large surface areas of approximately 13.27 m2/g, reinforcing the significant advantages of EWE, that is, less aggregation and in situ production of nanoparticles with enhanced removal efficacy, for groundwater treatment.... 

Gas pressure reduction stations are essential in energy distribution networks because even a minor failure of these systems causes disruptive consumer problems. This study aims to introduce and implement a new knowledge-based platform that uses the synthesized expert's opinions to improve gas pressure control facilities. Given the record of failure of gas transmission system components and the data's uncertain nature, a new fuzzy expert system is developed that takes advantage of the object-oriented programming paradigm to analyze failure modes and conditions. The artificial intelligent model is designed in C# programming language, and a user-friendly interface is developed for ease of... 

A great amount of work has been done over the past few years to understand the structure-properties relationship in polypropylene/glass fiber composites. This is because of the very fast-growing rate of polypropylene applications in the automotive and other industries. This work focused on the role of glass fibers and fiber-matrix adhesion on deformation mechanism. Composites with different fiber content, with and without adhesion promoter, were fabricated. Tensile tests and microscopy techniques were conducted. Based on the results, a physical model has been proposed that illustrates the initiation and growth of the damage under static loading condition. According to this work, the... 

In the present research the aging behavior of Al6061 alloy and Al6061/SiCp composite fabricated by powder metallurgy method was investigated. The solution treatment of the samples were carried out at 527°C for 2, 3and 4 h followed by aging at 180°C for different aging times between 1 and 10 h. The existence of SiC particles led to increasing the peak hardness of the composite. The peak hardness of the composite took place at shorter times than that of the 6061 alloy for the samples solution treated for 3and 4 h, but took place at longer times for the samples solution treated for 2 h. The optimum solution treating time was about 3 h for both the composite and the 6061 alloy that led to the... 

This paper reviews the literature concerning the effectiveness of countermeasures at Highway-Railway Grade Crossings (HRGC). HRGC are considered as the hotspots in railway transportation systems. So far, there has been significant discussion about different types of countermeasure to mitigate the risk of accidents at HRGC. Different approaches have been developed about the effectiveness of the countermeasures including the Before-After and Cross-Sectional. This paper compares all different studies to evaluate the effectiveness of countermeasure in reduction of accident frequency and severity  

This paper presents the application of a fuzzy logic controlled Static Compensator (STATCOM) to improve stability of power system. The nonlinear fuzzy logic controller is used to overcome the problems generated by different uncertainties exist in power systems. Different input variables are used to design the controller. Parameters of the proposed controller are adjusted by means of Neural Network techniques to improve performance of the system. Proposed controller is implemented on a single machine infinite bus system to confirm the performance of the controller through simulation results  

Different structures of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) were fabricated with various compositions and arrangement modes of the photoanodes. The solvothermally grown TiO2 nanoparticles and sol-gel derived spherical TiO2 and BaTiO3 particles were employed as the active and scattering layers of DSCs. TiO2 nanoparticles and spherical particles had pure anatase structure with particle size of 15-30 nm and 200-400 nm, respectively, whereas 300-800 nm BaTiO3 particles showed cubic perovskite structure. The efficiency improvement of mono-layer cells made of TiO2 nanoparticles (i.e., 7.22%) was achieved by light harvesting mechanism. Further enhancement of photovoltaic performance was achieved by... 

In last decades, rubber-toughened polymer blends have been the object of considerable interest by many investigators, owing to their attractive mechanical as well as physical properties. Polypropylene (PP) is a type of polyolefin which can be toughened using rubber particles. In another paper [J. Appl. Polym. Sci., submitted for publication], the role of ethylene-propylene (EPR) particles on the deformation mechanism during tensile tests and the fracture mechanism under quasi-static loading tests has been investigated. This paper is instead focused on the role of EPR particles on the fracture mechanism under dynamic loading (impact properties) of EPR/PP blends. Blends with different weight... 

The original version of this Article contained an error in the spelling of the author Mohammad Hossein Modarressi, which was incorrectly given as Mohammad‑Hossein Modarresi. The original Article has been corrected. © 2022, The Author(s)  

This study aims to identify genetic causes of familial female infertility characterized by embryonic developmental arrest (EDA) and repeated implantation failure (RIF) with oocyte donation IVF cycle. We used Whole-exome sequencing and Sanger validation to find causative genes in an Iranian consanguineous family that had 3 infertile daughters, 4 fertile daughters, and 2 fertile sons. All patients in this consanguineous family exhibited typical manifestations of unexplained RIF and EDA. Genetic analysis identified a homozygous missense variant (c.G1054C:p.G352R) in exon 13 of the TLE6 gene that cosegregated with the EDA phenotype in an autosomal recessive pattern. Other members of the family,... 

This paper presents a new framework for planning studies of modern distribution networks. Presence of electric vehicles (EVs) and various technologies of distributed generation (DG) technologies are considered in the studies as two upcoming events of the future systems. In this regard, place and capacity of DG units along with the reinforcement of distribution lines are determined running a multi-objective (MO) optimization algorithm. Total losses of the distribution network along with annualized cost of expansion plans including investment, operation and maintenance costs are introduced as the main criteria which should be optimized in the proposed framework. An effective Posteriori... 

Let F be a field, char (F) ≠ 2, and S ⊆ GLn (F), where n is a positive integer. In this paper we show that if for every distinct elements x, y ∈ S, x + y is singular, then S is finite. We conjecture that this result is true if one replaces field with a division ring. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved  

Gradual chemical (displacement) reaction between CuO and Al powders during high-energy attrition milling under a high purity argon atmosphere was studied. Differential thermal analysis (DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques were employed to study the solid-state reaction. It was shown that the solid-state reaction occurred during mechanical alloying (MA) and resulted in the dissolution of copper into the aluminum lattice and formation of nanometric alumina particles. The reinforcement particles were mostly distributed at the grain boundaries of Al matrix with an average crystallite size of about 50 nm. In DTA curve of the milled powders, a small... 

Cloud Computing enables delivery of IT resources over the Internet and follows the pay-as-you-go billing model. The cloud infrastructures can be used as an appropriate environment for executing of workflow applications. To execute workflow applications in this environment, it is necessary to develop the workflow scheduling algorithms that consider different QoS parameters such as execution time and cost. Therefore, in this paper we focus on two criteria: total completion time (makespan) and execution cost of workflow, and propose two heuristic algorithms: MTDC (Minimum Time and Decreased Cost) which aims to create a schedule that minimizes the makespan and decreases execution cost, and CTDC...