Locating Water Desalination Facilities for Municipal Drinking Water Based on Qualitative and Quantitative Characteristics of Groundwater in Iran's Desert Regions

Groundwater resources have become the main resources for water supply due to the unavailability of surface water in arid zones. Arid zone's damage to groundwater resources will have a high impact on human life in arid zones comparing to other regions. Due to the lack of surface water resources in these arid zones, groundwater is used as a resource for drinking and sanitation purposes due to the lack of surface water resources in these arid zones. Water desalination facilities are set up in locations where there is both sufficient amount of water (quantitative criteria) and the extracted water has adequate quality (qualitative criteria). Therefore, an optimization model should be used to locate optimal places for water desalination facilities. Multi-criteria decision-making models are mathematical techniques that, by using the geographic information system, are able to evaluate the options under complicated and indefinite geographic conditions. This research prepares information and factor maps to assign weights to qualitative water maps which were combined in the form of an inductive network. Therefore, by employing the concept of fuzzy fusion models, this article presents a method for solving multi-criteria geographically-indeterminate problems, and finally finds an appropriate location for the construction of a water desalination system in the desert region of Birjand in Iran

Interlaminar Fracture Toughness Evaluation in Glass/Epoxy Composites Using Acoustic Emission and Finite Element Methods

© 2014, ASM International. Delamination is one of the most common modes of failure in laminated composites and it leads to the loss of structural strength and stiffness. In this paper, mode I, mode II, and mixed of these pure modes were investigated using mechanical data, Finite Element Method (FEM) and Acoustic Emission (AE) signals. Experimental data were obtained from insitu monitoring of glass/epoxy laminated composites with different lay-ups when subjected to different modes of failure. The main objective was to investigate the behavior of delamination propagation and to evaluate the critical value of the strain energy which is required for onset of the delamination (GC). For the identification of interlaminar fracture toughness of the specimens, four methods were used: (a) ASTM standard methods, (b) FEM analysis, (c) AE method, and (d) sentry function method which is a function of mechanical and AE behaviors of the specimens. The results showed that the GC values obtained by the sentry function method and FEM analysis were in a close agreement with the results of nonlinearity methods which is recommended in the ASTM standards. It was also found that the specimens under different loading conditions and various lay-up have different GC values. These differences are related to different stress components distribution in the specimens which induce various damage mechanisms. Accordingly, stress components distribution obtained from FEM analyses were in agreement with SEM observations of the damaged surfaces of the specimens

Investigations about the importance of oxidative stress in preeclampsia

Präeklampsie ist eine der häufigsten schwerwiegenden Schwangerschafts-Komplikationen, die durch Hypertonie, Proteinurie und Ödeme charakterisiert ist. Die Pathogenese ist weitgehend unklar. Viele Untersuchungen legen nahe, dass Präeklampsie mit oxidativem Stress im mütterlichen Organismus verbunden ist. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden zunächst Indikatoren des oxidativen Stresses durch in-vitro-Versuche charakterisiert. Dabei wurde mit H2O2, t-BHP, KO2 und Xanthin/XOD künstlicher oxidativer Stress im Plasma gesunder Probandinnen induziert. Zur Erfassung der Parameter für oxidativen Stress diente die gesamte antioxidative Kapazität (TRAP) sowie die Peakhöhe der Chemilumineszenz der AAPH-Reaktion (2,2’-Azobis (2-amidiniopropan)-hydrochlorid). Diese wurde durch die verwendeten Oxidantien vermindert. Zusätzlich wurden die Konzentrationen der Thiole im Plasma untersucht. Unter der Einwirkung der Oxidantien wurde eine Abnahme der freien Thiolgruppen, vor allem der an Proteine gebundenen, im Plasma festgestellt. Auf die Malondialdehyd-Konzentration hatte die Inkubation mit H2O2 keinen Effekt, t-BHP verursachte eine Zunahme. Auch bei der Wirkung auf die ATP-Konzentration in Erythrozyten wurde eine viel stärkere Abnahme des ATP durch t-BHP im Vergleich zu H2O2 gefunden. Danach wurde durch klinisch-chemische Blutanalyse der Frage nachgegangen, welche Bedeutung oxidativer Stress bei der Präeklampsie hat, wobei ein umfangreiches Spektrum an Messparametern bestimmt wurde. Dabei wurden Blutproben von gesunden (n=49) und präeklamptischen Schwangeren (n=37) auf Marker des oxidativen Stresses hin untersucht, neue bisher nicht gemessene Parameter waren die Peakhöhe der AAPH-Reaktion sowie der ATP-Gehalt in Erythrozyten. Insgesamt erstreckte sich die Analyse zur Erfassung des oxidativen Stresses über die Messung der gesamten antioxidativen Kapazität des Plasmas mittels AAPH-Reaktion, der Peakhöhe dieser Reaktion, des Thiolstatus im Plasma und den Erythrozyten, der Konzentration von Malondialdehyd als Produkt der Lipidperoxidation im Plasma und in der Erythrozytenmembran, des Gehalts von Nitrit/Nitrat und von Harnsäure im Plasma, der ATP-Konzentration in Erythrozyten sowie der Aktivierbarkeit von Leukozyten mit opsonisiertem Zymosan. Insgesamt belegen unsere Messdaten einen erhöhten oxidativen Stress bei Präeklampsie. Allerdings ergab sich ein erhöhter TRAP-Wert bei den präeklamptischen Schwangeren, der offensichtlich auf einer Zunahme der Harnsäure bei dieser Gruppe beruht. Zwischen Harnsäurespiegel und Peakhöhe der AAPH-Reaktion zeigte sich eine negative Korrelation. Außerdem konnte eine positive Korrelation zwischen Harnsäure und Malondialdehyd im Plasma berechnet werden, ein Befund, der unterstreicht, dass Harnsäure einen Indikator für oxidativen Stress darstellt. Der ATP-Gehalt in den Erythrozyten erwies sich bei Präeklampsie als erniedrigt. Dies kann eine Ursache für deren verminderte Flexibilität sein, die wiederum die verminderte Uterus- und Plazenta-Perfusion und damit letztlich die intrauterine Wachstumsretardierung des Fetus erklären könnte. Schließlich wurden in-vitro-Versuche mit Vitamin C durchgeführt, um dessen Einfluss auf die Parameter des oxidativen Stresses zeigen zu können. Dabei ergaben sich zwei gegensätzliche Effekte: Ein antioxidativer Effekt in Bezug auf den TRAP-Wert, der in Abhängigkeit von der Vitamin-C-Konzentration deutlich zunahm, und ein prooxidativer Effekt in Bezug auf den erhöhten Gehalt von Malondialdehyd im Plasma und der Erythrozytenmembran. Diese in-vitro-Ergebnisse erlauben keine abschließende Bewertung der Frage, ob Vitamin C als Therapie bei Präeklampsie eingesetzt werden kann. Obwohl das Risiko einer Vitamintherapie während der Schwangerschaft gering erscheint, bedarf es weiterer Abklärung, ob Vitamin C in vivo Schutz vor oxidativem Stress bieten kann.Preeclampsia is a multisystemic disorder of pregnancy defined clinically as a syndrome of elevated blood pressure, excessive proteinuria and generalized edema. The cause of preeclampsia is not well understood. It seems that oxidative stress is involved in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia. In the present study at first indicators of oxidative stress were characterized by in vitro experiments. Therefore artificial oxidative stress was induced by oxidants like H2O2, t-BHP, KO2 and xanthin/XOD in plasma of healthy subjects. For evaluation of their effects the total free radical trapping antioxidant potential (TRAP) and the peak intensity of the luminol-enhanced chemiluminescence of the AAPH [2,2’-azobis(2-amidinopropane)hydrochloride] reaction were measured. Both were decreased in plasma under the influence of the oxidants. In addition, the free thiols showed a reduction, especially that bound to proteins were strongly reduced, whereas the low molecular thiols showed only a small reduction. The concentration of malondialdehyde was not effected by H2O2, but significantly increased by t-BHP. The ATP content of erythrocytes was decreased more strongly in the presence of t-BHP than with H2O2. Then we also investigated the importance of oxidative stress in preeclampsia. For this purpose biomarkers for oxidative stress in lithium-heparin-plasma of healthy pregnant women (n=49) and in patients with preeclampsia (n=37) were determined. The indicators of oxidative stress were the total free radical trapping antioxidant potential determined by the AAPH-reaction, the peak intensity of this reaction, free thiol groups in plasma and in red blood cells (here only low molecular thiols), malondialdehyde in plasma and erythrocyte membrane, concentration of nitrite/nitrate and uric acid in plasma, the concentration of ATP in erythrocytes and finally the stimulation of leukocytes with zymosan. Our results showed an increased oxidative stress in preeclamptic women. We found that the peak intensity is lower in the patients compared to that of healthy subjects, whereas TRAP is increased in plasma, probably due to increased plasma levels of uric acid, which probably indicates impaired function of the kidney. We found a significant inverse correlation between the concentration of uric acid and the peak intensity and a significant positive correlation between the concentration of uric acid and malondialdehyde in plasma, a fact which emphasizes that uric acid represents an indicator of oxidative stress. The concentration of ATP in erythrocytes was lower in the case of preeclampsia. This could be the cause of the reduction of the normal deformability of the erythrocytes by preeclampsia, which could explain the lowered perfusion of the uterus and the placenta and in the end the intrauterine growth retardation. Finally in vitro experiments were performed to investigate the influence of vitamin C on the parameters of oxidative stress. We found two differing effects: An antioxidant effect with regard to the increasing TRAP and a pro-oxidant effect with regard to the increased concentration of malondialdehyde in plasma and erythrocyte membrane. These results do not allow a final evaluation of the question whether vitamin C is a possible therapy of preeclampsia. Further investigations are necessary

Continuous-Variable Ramp Quantum Secret Sharing with Gaussian States and Operations

Our aim is to formulate continuous-variable quantum secret-sharing as a continuous-variable ramp quantum secret-sharing protocol, provide a certification procedure for it and explain the criteria for the certification. Here we introduce a technique for certifying continuous-variable ramp quantum secret-sharing schemes in the framework of quantum interactive-proof systems. We devise pseudocodes in order to represent the sequence of steps taken to solve the certification problem. Furthermore, we derive the expression for quantum mutual information between the quantum secret extracted by any multi-player structure and the share held by the referee corresponding to the Tyc-Rowe-Sanders continuous-variable quantum secret-sharing scheme. We solve by converting the Tyc-Rowe-Sanders position representation for the state into a Wigner function from which the covariance matrix can be found, then insert the covariance matrix into the standard formula for continuous-variable quantum mutual information to obtain quantum mutual information in terms of squeezing. Our quantum mutual information result quantifies the leakage of the ramp quantum secret-sharing schemes

Effect of poly(methyl methacrylate) wrapping on the structure and properties of CNT films, and polymer/CNT films and fibers

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) exhibit high electrical and thermal conductivity and good mechanical properties, making them suitable fillers for composites. Their effectiveness as a filler is affected by their state of aggregation. Various solvents, surfactants, and processing techniques have been studied to improve CNT dispersion in polymers. However, prior to this work there is no suitable solution for achieving good CNT dispersion. In this study, a novel process has been developed that prevents CNT aggregation. Ordered helical wrapping of poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) has been achieved on single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). PMMA wrapped SWNT dispersions in dimethylformamide (DMF) are found to be stable for over three months at room temperature. Ordered PMMA wrapping has been confirmed by X-ray diffraction, and the wrapping behavior has also been verified using molecular modeling. PMMA only wraps on SWNTs with diameter of ~1 nm and not on larger diameter CNTs, such as few wall and multi wall carbon nanotubes. PMMA wrapped SWNT dispersions have also been characterized using UV-vis and Raman spectroscopy which confirm exfoliation of PMMA wrapped SWNTs. The novel finding has been successfully leveraged for electrical energy storage and mechanical reinforcement. SWNT buckypapers, typically have a surface area of about 650 m2/g. Using PMMA wrapping, SWNT buckypapers with surface area as high as 950 m2/g have been processed. These buckypapers exhibited significantly higher energy storage performance when used as electrodes in electrochemical supercapacitor. At a given power density, the energy density of the high surface electrodes was more than four times higher than the best value reported in the literature to-date for carbon nanotube or graphene electrodes. Wrapping SWNTs with PMMA in buckypaper increased the modulus and tensile strength by a factor of 5.9 and 3.7, respectively, compared to pristine SWNT buckypaper. Stress transfer studies on buckypapers revealed that while non-wrapped SWNTs experienced negligible stress during deformation, PMMA wrapped SWNTs took up to ~1 GPa stress before mechanical failure of the buckypaper. The modulus of composite films with PMMA wrapped SWNTs was 75 % higher than non-wrapped SWNT films. The effect of PMMA wrapping on thermomechanical properties and electrical conductivity of composite films is also reported. PMMA wrapped and non-wrapped SWNTs were incorporated in PAN fibers and the effect of PMMA wrapping on mechanical properties, and stress transfer was characterized. The stress transfer analysis of SWNTs in precursor fiber indicated 45 % higher interfacial shear strength in PMMA wrapped SWNTs compared to non-wrapped SWNTs. PMMA wrapping effectively debundled SWNTs in the PAN fibers as evidenced by Raman spectroscopy of the precursor fiber. SEM images of the carbon fiber fracture surface revealed 60% reduction in fibril size when PMMA wrapped SWNTs were used instead of non-wrapped SWNTs.Ph.D

Factors influencing social shopping behavior of fashion in Tehran apparel market

Social shopping behavior of fashion embraces various activities, direct/indirect complex and dynamic interpersonal happening during the process of buying fashion and causes customers’ pleasure and satisfaction from purchasing intention, which in long-term helps sales improvement. This study has taken place in city of Tehran, Iran in order to assess the social purchase behavior of consumers and drivers in the field of fashion garments. Data analysis was performed using partial least squares. Research findings indicate a significant positive relationship between obsessed with fashion garments and the five dimensions of social shopping behavior. On the other hand, there is a positive and meaningful relationship between materialism and the need for uniqueness by consumers’ involvement toward fashion apparel

Morphological study of some Euphorbia taxa in Iran

Abstract. Talebi SM, Noori M, Davijani SS. 2016. Morphological study of some Euphorbia taxa in Iran. Nusantara Bioscience 8: 103-110. Euphorbia (Euphorbiaceae) has nearly 2000 species and great morphological diversity present between its members. For this reason, species of this genus are classified into different infrageneric ranks. In the present study, morphological characteristics of fifteen taxa of this genus were examined in Iran. Thirty one qualitative and quantitative morphological characteristics from the vegetative and reproductive organs of the studied taxa were examined. ANOVA test showed significant variations for all of studied quantitative features. PCA-biplot of the studied traits confirmed that some of them were very useful for identification of the treated taxa. In addition, the obtained results did not confirm species classifications in sections/subsections according to Flora Iranica as well as Flora of Turkey and proved high morphological variations between these species; therefore traditional classification of species in subsection must be changed and our results confirmed previous molecular studies