Experimental investigation and numerical modeling of light nonaqueous phase liquid dissolution and transport in a saturated zone of the soil

The present research aims at studying the dissolution and transport process of benzene as a light nonaqueous phase liquid (LNAPL) in saturated porous media. This process is studied under unidirectional flow at different water velocities ranging from 0.90 to 3.60 cm/h in a three-dimensional saturated sand tank (100 cm × 40 cm × 35 cm). This tank represents a laboratory-scale aquifer. The dispersion parameters of the sand tank are based on an independent tracer experiments. The experimental aquifer is simulated by developing a three-dimensional finite element numerical model. This model assumes that the dissolved concentration along the LNAPL-water interface is equal to the solubility concentration. The numerical model results overpredict the experimental within factor 1.6 and 2.29 at depths of 1 cm and 3 cm, respectively, during eight days. The correlation coefficient is ranging from 0.8485 to 0.9986. The time invariant average mass transfer coefficient is determined at each interstitial velocity. The values are ranged from 0.016 to 0.061 cm/h (i.e. increased with velocity toward a limiting value). For a circular benzene pool, two linear relationships are found; the first between the overall Sherwood number (Sh(e)(*)) with average Peclet number in x-direction (Pe(x(e))(*)); and the second between the overall Sherwood number (Sh(e)(*)) with average Peclet number in y-direction (Pe(y(e))(*)).     

New approach to bone tissue engineering: simultaneous application of hydroxyapatite and bioactive glass coated on a poly(L-lactic acid) scaffold

A combination of bioceramics and polymeric nanofibers holds promising potential for bone tissue engineering applications. In the present study, hydroxyapatite (HA), bioactive glass (BG), and tricalcium phosphate (TCP) particles were coated on the surface of electrospun poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) nanofibers, and the capacity of the PLLA, BG-PLLA, HA-PLLA, HA-BG-PLLA, and TCP-PLLA scaffolds for bone regeneration was investigated in rat critical-size defects using digital mammography, multislice spiral-computed tomography (MSCT) imaging, and histological analysis. Electrospun scaffolds exhibited a nanofibrous structure with a homogeneous distribution of bioceramics along the surface of PLLA nanofibers. A total of 8 weeks after implantation, no sign of complication or inflammation was observed at the site of the calvarial bone defect. On the basis of imaging analysis, a higher level of bone reconstruction was observed in the animals receiving HA-, BG-, and TCP-coated scaffolds compared to an untreated control group. In addition, simultaneous coating of HA and BG induced the highest regeneration among all groups. Histological staining confirmed these findings and also showed an efficient osseointegration in HA-BG-coated nanofibers. On the whole, it was demonstrated that nanofibrous structures could serve as an appropriate support to guide the healing process, and coating their surface with bioceramics enhanced bone reconstruction. These bioceramic-coated scaffolds can be used as new bone-graft substitutes capable of efficiently inducing osteoconduction and osseointegration in orthopedic fractures and defects.     

An investigation on effects of heat treatment on corrosion properties of Ni–P electroless nano-coatings

Electroless Ni–P coatings are recognized for their excellent properties. In the present investigation electroless Ni–P nano-crystalline coatings were prepared. X-ray diffraction technique (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were utilized to study prior and post-deposition vacuum heat treatment effects on corrosion resistance together with the physical properties of the applied coatings.     

Iranian Medical Universities in SCIE: evaluation of address variation

Patenting and licensing is not only a significant method of university knowledge transfer, but also an important indicator for measuring academic R&D strength and knowledge utilization. The methodologies of quantitative and qualitative analysis, including a special patent h-index indicator to assess patenting quality, were used to examine university patenting worldwide. Analysis of university patenting from 1998 to 2008 showed a significant overall global increase in which Chinese academia stands out: most of the top 20 universities in patenting in 2008 were in China. However, a low rate of utilization of Chinese academic patents may have roots in: (1) university research evaluation system encourages the patent production more, rather than the utilization; (2) problems in the formal mechanisms for university technology transfer and licensing, (3) industry’s limited expectation and receptive capabilities and/or (4) a mismatch between the interests of the two institutional spheres. The next action to be taken by government, university and industry in China will be to explore strategies for improving academic patent quality and industry take-up.     

Fiber nonlinearity compensation of WDM-PDM 16-QAM signaling using multiple optical phase conjugations over a distributed Raman-amplified link

In this paper, multiple optical phase conjugation (OPC) devices were used along the optical link to improve the performance of an \(8\times 256\) Gbps polarization-division multiplexing 16-state quadrature amplitude modulation signaling, producing total bit rate of 2.048 Tbps. A 50-GHz spaced, eight-channel wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) communication system was considered using 912 km dispersion-unmanaged standard single-mode fiber link with backward distributed Raman pumps. The performance of a dual-pump highly nonlinear fiber-based OPC was investigated analytically using a set of eight nonlinear Schrödinger equations taking into account the effect of polarization. Simulation results were compared with the case of mid-span optical phase conjugation (MS-OPC) compensation scheme showing better performance in terms of achievable Q-factor, optimal signal launched power, and the total length of the transmission link. In 256 Gbps, single-channel scenario, a Q-factor improvement of 1.35 dB was achieved and the nonlinear threshold was increased by \(\sim \) 4 dB compared to the case of MS-OPC. Moreover, using multiple OPC led to increase the length of the transmission link by 30.7% compared with the case of MS-OPC. In 2.048 Tbps WDM system, a maximum Q-factor of 9.27 dB over the same link was obtained showing an improvement of 0.62 dB over the MS-OPC case. The simulation results were compared with published analogous experimental data showing very good agreement.     

High Performance Microstrip Low Pass Filter for Wireless Communications

A microstrip low-pass filter using T-shaped resonators is designed to achieve an ultra-sharp transition band and high suppression level. The performance of the resonators is investigated based on an LC equivalent circuit and a transfer function to compute the equations of the transmission zeros. This filter has an acceptable stopband with high insertion loss (28 dB) by adopting a rectangular suppressor. Also, the width of the transition band is 0.09 GHz (with – 3 and ? 40 dB attenuation levels), that exhibits a very high sharpness (ξ = 411 dB/GHz). The proposed filter with a 3 dB cut-off frequency (f_c) of 1.32 GHz presents a high return loss in the passband (17 dB) and high figure of merit of 57,073. The designed filter is fabricated and measured, demonstrating sufficient agreement between the simulation and experimental results.