Islamic Azad University

About: Islamic Azad University is a education organization based out in Tehran, Iran. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Catalysis. The organization has 83635 authors who have published 113437 publications receiving 1275049 citations. The organization is also known as: Azad University.

Application of gold nanoparticles in biomedical and drug delivery

Abstract: Nanoparticles are the simplest form of structures with sizes in the nanometer (nm) range. In principle any collection of atoms bonded together with a structural radius of 100 nm can be considered nano particles. Nanotechnology off ers unique approaches to probe and control a variety of biological and medical processes that occur at nanometer scales, and is expected to have a revolutionary impact on biology and medicine. Among the approaches for exploiting nanotechnology in medicine, nanoparticles off er some unique advantages as sensing, image enhancement, and delivery agents. Several varieties of nanoparticles with biomedical relevance are available including, polymeric nanoparticles, metal nanoparticles, liposomes, micelles, quantum dots, dendrimers, and nanoassemblies. To further the application of nanoparticles in disease diagnosis and therapy, it is important that the systems are biocompatible and capable of being functionalized for recognition of specifi c target sites in the body after systemic administration. In this review, we have explained some important applications of gold nanoparticles.

Controllable synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles and their morphology-dependent antibacterial and optical properties.

Abstract: ZnO materials with different morphologies have been synthesized via a simple solvothermal method using different solvents without any catalysts, templates or surfactants. The ZnO samples are employed in the inactivation of gram-negative Escherichia coli and gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus in MilliQ water. The photocatalytic activities of samples to degrade an azo dye, Acid Orange 74 (CI 18745), were also tested. XRD data showed that single-phase ZnO with the wurtzite crystal structure but different growth habits were obtained in the different solvents. SEM imaging illustrated that ZnO with flower-like, rod-like, and spherical shape were produced when water, 1-hexanol, and ethylene glycol were used as the solvent, respectively. The optical properties of the as-prepared ZnO materials were investigated by UV-vis absorption and photoluminescence spectra. The antibacterial efficiencies were affected by the physiological status of the bacterial cells, different morphologies and crystal growth habits, particle size and optical properties of ZnO samples. Results indicate that ZnO flower-like showed significantly higher photocatalytic inactivation than ZnO rod- and sphere-like against E. coli compared with S. aureus. It was found that the antibacterial activity of ZnO increased with decreasing crystallite size. The inactivation efficiencies for both organisms under light conditions were higher than under dark conditions. The obtained results were discussed according to the morphologies, optical and structural properties of ZnO powders as key parameters in photocatalytic and antibacterial activity.

Support vector regression with chaos-based firefly algorithm for stock market price forecasting

Abstract: Due to the inherent non-linearity and non-stationary characteristics of financial stock market price time series, conventional modeling techniques such as the Box-Jenkins autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) are not adequate for stock market price forecasting. In this paper, a forecasting model based on chaotic mapping, firefly algorithm, and support vector regression (SVR) is proposed to predict stock market price. The forecasting model has three stages. In the first stage, a delay coordinate embedding method is used to reconstruct unseen phase space dynamics. In the second stage, a chaotic firefly algorithm is employed to optimize SVR hyperparameters. Finally in the third stage, the optimized SVR is used to forecast stock market price. The significance of the proposed algorithm is 3-fold. First, it integrates both chaos theory and the firefly algorithm to optimize SVR hyperparameters, whereas previous studies employ a genetic algorithm (GA) to optimize these parameters. Second, it uses a delay coordinate embedding method to reconstruct phase space dynamics. Third, it has high prediction accuracy due to its implementation of structural risk minimization (SRM). To show the applicability and superiority of the proposed algorithm, we selected the three most challenging stock market time series data from NASDAQ historical quotes, namely Intel, National Bank shares and Microsoft daily closed (last) stock price, and applied the proposed algorithm to these data. Compared with genetic algorithm-based SVR (SVR-GA), chaotic genetic algorithm-based SVR (SVR-CGA), firefly-based SVR (SVR-FA), artificial neural networks (ANNs) and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems (ANFIS), the proposed model performs best based on two error measures, namely mean squared error (MSE) and mean absolute percent error (MAPE).

Dimethyl ether: A review of technologies and production challenges

Abstract: Dimethyl ether (DME) is a well-known propellant and coolant, an alternative clean fuel for diesel engines which simultaneously is capable of achieving high performance and low emission of CO, NOx and particulates in its combustion. It can be produced from a variety of feed-stocks such as natural gas, coal or biomass; and also can be processed into valuable co-products such as hydrogen as a sustainable future energy. This review, which also can be counted as an extensive, pioneer review paper on this topic, presents recent developments in synthesis methods of dimethyl ether as an alternative energy while focuses on conventional processes and innovative technologies in reactor design and employed catalysts. In this context, synthesis methods are classified according to their use of raw material type as direct and indirect methods as well as other routes, since different methods need their own operating condition. Also, the available data for the selectivity to DME and its yield as a function of H2/CO and CO2 content of the feed is discussed.