GIS-based sinkhole susceptibility mapping using the best worst method

Mohammad Maleki,Mohammad Salman,Saeideh Sahebi Vayghan,Szilard Szabo 대한공간정보학회 2023 Spatial Information Research Vol.31 No.5

Sinkholes are among karst forms and their formation is continuous and their identification is essential in several fields of life, such as water resources management, environmental hazards management, and tourism. This study aimed to identify the sinkholes and the sinkhole susceptibility in the Bistoon-Parav karst region, Iran. Ten sinkhole causative factors, precipitation, temperature, evaporation, lithology, soil type, slope, latitude, fault, stream and vegetation were involved in the sinkhole susceptibility model applying the best worst method, and we also determined the importance of the factors. The final sinkhole susceptibility map was produced by the weighted summing up the factors based on the variable importance. Lithology was the most important factor with 31.52% in the formation of sinkholes. The validation step was executed with a sinkhole database based on visual interpretation of high-resolution imagery. Finally, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC), completeness, correctness and quality index were applied to validate the performance of the sinkhole susceptibility map model. According to the validation parameters, the value of the ROC, completeness, correctness and quality was 81.90%, 100%, 59.41% and 59.41%, respectively. Thus, it can be said that the produced model shows acceptable performances for sinkhole susceptibility mapping. Also, this model showed that almost 7.4% of the region has the potential to become a sinkhole in the future.

Experimental Study and Kinetic Modeling of Cometabolic Degradation of Phenol and p-nitrophenol by Loofa-immobilized Ralstonia eutropha

Mohammad Maleki,Mahdi Motamedi,Mahsa Sedighi,Seyed Morteza Zamir,Farzaneh Vahabzadeh 한국생물공학회 2015 Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering Vol.20 No.1

In the present study, phenol-adapted cells ofRalstonia eutropha were used to degrade p-nitrophenol(PNP) in the presence of phenol. PNP at initial concentrationsranging from 5 to 15 mg/L was degraded almost completelyby free cells of R. eutropha. The use of loofa-immobilizedcells increased the complete removal of PNP up to 30 mg/L. Kinetic data for PNP biodegradation by immobilized cellsof R. eutropha best fitted the Haldane model. The kineticparameters were ks = 0.0006 (mg PNP/mg biomass.h), Ks =8.83 (mg/L) and Ki = 30.77 (mg/L). The degradation pathwaysof PNP through the metabolites, 4-nitro-catechol (4-NC)and hydroquinone (HQ), were investigated using HPLC.

Investigation of the effect of surcharge on behavior of soil slopes

Aminpour, Mohammad Mahdi,Maleki, Mohammad,Ghanbari, Ali Techno-Press 2017 Geomechanics & engineering Vol.13 No.4

By increase in the population and consequently constructions, new structures may be built in vicinity of the soil slopes. Such structures can be regarded as an extra surcharge on the slopes. The intensity and location of the surcharge affects the displacements of the slopes. Few researchers have studied the effect of surcharge on displacements of soil slopes. In this research, using limit analysis method and upper bound theory with non-associated flow rule, displacements of soil slopes in vicinity of a surcharge has been estimated. The authors have improved the technique previously proposed by them and a new formulation is suggested for calculating the permanent displacements of the soil slope in presence of a surcharge for two failure modes, rotational and transitional. A comparison has also been made between the two mentioned modes for various conditions of surcharge and slope. The conditions resulting in the rotational mode to be more critical than the transitional mode have been investigated. Also, the effects of surcharge's intensity, location of surcharge as well as the soil properties have been investigated.

Improved Region-Based TCTL Model Checking of Time Petri Nets

Mohammad Esmail Esmaili,Reza Entezari-Maleki,Ali Movaghar 한국정보과학회 2015 Journal of Computing Science and Engineering Vol.9 No.1

The most important challenge in the region-based abstraction method as an approach to compute the state space of time Petri Nets (TPNs) for model checking is that the method results in a huge number of regions, causing a state explosion problem. Thus, region-based abstraction methods are not appropriate for use in developing practical tools. To address this limitation, this paper applies a modification to the basic region abstraction method to be used specially for computing the state space of TPN models, so that the number of regions becomes smaller than that of the situations in which the current methods are applied. The proposed approach is based on the special features of TPN that helps us to construct suitable and small region graphs that preserve the time properties of TPN. To achieve this, we use TPN-TCTL as a timed extension of CTL for specifying a subset of properties in TPN models. Then, for model checking TPN-TCTL properties on TPN models, CTL model checking is used on TPN models by translating TPN-TCTL to the equivalent CTL. Finally, we compare our proposed method with the current region-based abstraction methods proposed for TPN models in terms of the size of the resulting region graph.

Epidemiology of Oral Cancer in Iran: a Systematic Review

Maleki, Davood,Ghojazadeh, Morteza,Mahmoudi, Seyed-Sajjad,Mahmoudi, Seed-Mostafa,Pournaghi-Azar, Fatemeh,Torab, Ali,Piri, Reza,Azami-Aghdash, Saber,Naghavi-Behzad, Mohammad Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.13

Background: Oral cancer stands among the 10 top causes of cancer death in the world. Considering the role of epidemiologic information on planning and effective interventions, the present study aimed to investigate the epidemiology of oral cancer in Iran. Materials and Methods: The required information for this systematic review study was obtained from PubMed, Google Scholar, CINAHL,SID, Medlib, Magiran and Iranmedex databases, using key words "cancer", "oral cancer", "squamous cell carcinoma", "oral cavity carcinoma" and their Persian equivalents in combination with keywords of epidemiology, prevalence, etiology, frequency, and Iran from 1990 to 2014. From 1,065 related studies found, finally 25 were included to the study. Results: The mean age of 8,248 patients in 25 studies was $54.0{\pm}15.1years$. The male/female ratio for oral cancer was 1.91. Tongue with average percentage of 29.9 was the most involved site. Regarding microscopic grade, 65.7% of cases were grade 1. SCCs, accounting for an average of 70.0%, was the most common among all types of oral cancer. In the majority of studies, smoking including cigarette, hookah, and tobacco consumption was found to be a risk factor. Conclusions: The epidemiological pattern of oral cancer in Iran is somewhat similar to that of other countries. Yet the information on hand in this field is limited and considering the role of epidemiological data we suggest conducting more accurate studies to catch data that is required for effective programs and interventions.

CFD ANALYSIS OF A NEW ACTIVE FLOW CONTROL METHOD FOR WIND TURBINE AIRFOILS USING A PADDLE WHEEL INSIDE THE SPLIT OF AIRFOIL

Mohammad Moshfeghi,Amir Maleki,Morteza Ramezani,Nahmkeon Hur(허남건) 한국전산유체공학회 2021 한국전산유체공학회지 Vol.26 No.2

In the following years, the wind energy industry will maintain its surge during the last few decades. Meanwhile, horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT) are the most prominent one among other wind turbines. Accordingly, enhancing blade aerodynamic performance should be the main part of study over this type of turbines. For this purpose, various active and passive flow control methods are being extensively investigated. Investigating new hybrid method is the main aim of this paper. Therefore, in this present study a novel idea, that uses a paddle wheel which is located inside the split, is investigated. This new configuration is based on the split method and the rotation of a paddle wheel that provides pulsatile flow inside the split. The flow then gets injected into the bulk flow over the airfoil, causing hybrid flow control effects. Optimized split geometry of S809 airfoil has been selected and then a paddle wheel is placed inside the split. First, the effect of split width on passing flow and separation zone was investigated. Second, the effect of rotational speed of the paddle is discussed. To this end, 2D CFD simulations using SST-k-ω turbulence model have been performed. The simulations have been conducted for a wide range of angles of attack (AOA). The results are discussed in the form of aerodynamics force coefficients as well as streamlines to compare the size of the separation area at higher angles of attack.

Pollination, Pollen Tube Growth and Determination of the Best Pollinizer for Sweet Cherry (Prunus avium L. cv. Red Rezaeieh)

Mohammad Mahmoodi,Kazem Arzani,Mahmood Maleki 한국원예학회 2006 한국원예학회 기타간행물 Vol.- No.-

Antioxidant Activity of Fermented Hazelnut Milk

Neda Maleki,Faramarz Khodaiyan,Seyed Mohammad Mousavi 한국식품과학회 2015 Food Science and Biotechnology Vol.24 No.1

Characteristics of a hazelnut-whey based beverage fermented using kefir grains were determined. The total phenolic content (TPC), DPPH radical-scavenging activity, reducing power (RP), and ferrous-ion chelating ability (FCA) as a function of different culture temperatures (20- 30oC) and inoculum sizes (2-8% w/v) were investigated. During fermentation, DPPH radical scavenging activities and RP values increased significantly (p<0.05) from 55.47 to 91.81% and 0.502 to 0.901 nm with an increasing inoculum size, while the TPC value decreased from 130.42 to 76.76 mg of GAE/100 mL, compared with controls. Fermentation had no significant (p>0.05) effect on FCA values, compared with controls. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to determine conditions for the highest antioxidant activities (radical scavenging and RP values). Hazelnut milk (HM) fermented at 25.91oC with an 8% inoculum size was optimum. A 9-point hedonic scale was used for evaluation of organoleptic properties. HM varieties fermented under optimum conditions received high acceptance scores.

Silibinin- Induced Apoptosis and Downregulation of MicroRNA-21 and MicroRNA-155 in MCF-7 Human Breast Cancer Cells

Masoud Maleki Zadeh,Nasrin Motamed,Najmeh Ranji,Mohammad Majidi,Fahimeh Falahi 한국유방암학회 2016 Journal of breast cancer Vol.19 No.1

Purpose: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have received much attention owing to their aberrant expression in various stages of cancer. In many biological processes, miRNAs negatively regulate gene expression, and may be useful in therapeutic strategies. The present study evaluated the effects of silibinin (silybin), a natural flavonoid, on miRNA expression and attempted to elucidate therapeutic targets in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Methods: The rates of cell proliferation and apoptosis were determined in silibinintreated and untreated MCF-7 cells. Furthermore, the expression levels of miR-21 and miR-155 were measured in MCF-7 cells after incubation with silibinin (100 μg/mL), and the putative targets of the miRNAs within the apoptotic pathways were predicted using bioinformatic approaches. The expression levels of some of these targets were evaluated by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Results: Silibinin induced apoptosis in MCF-7 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. qRT-PCR analysis revealed a decrease in miR-21 and miR- 155 expression levels in silibinin-treated cells relative to the levels in the untreated cells. Potential miR-21 and miR-155 targets within the apoptotic pathways, such as CASP-9, BID, APAF-1, CASP-3, CASP-8, and PDCD4, were predicted by in silico analysis. qRT-PCR analysis showed upregulation of some of these potential targets including caspase-9 (CASP-9) and BID after silibinin treatment for 48 hours. Conclusion: Our results suggest a correlation between the expression of miR-21 and miR-155, and MCF-7 cell proliferation. The antiproliferative activity of silibinin may partly be attributable to the downregulation of miR-21 and miR-155, and the upregulation of their apoptotic targets. Furthermore, the upregulation of CASP-9 and BID indicates that silibinin induces apoptosis through both the extrinsic and intrinsic pathways.

Seismic Fragility Assessment of SMRFs with Drilled Flange Connections using Ground Motion Variability

Mehdi Maleki,Roohollah Ahmady Jazany,Mohammad Soheil Ghobadi 대한토목학회 2019 KSCE JOURNAL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING Vol.23 No.4

Seismic behavior of Steel Moment Resisting Frames (SMRFs) with Drilled Flange (DF) connections as well as Reduced Beam Section (RBS) and Welded Unreinforced Flange-Bolted web (WUF-B) as a Pre-Northridge connection have been compared analytically considering Far-field earthquake-induced. The backbone curves of RBS and WUF connections are extracted from available studies and the backbone curve of DF connection is presented in this study in order to simulating the buildings models. DF, RBS, WUF connections and Panel Zone (PZ) are numerically modeled based on the proposed models provided by the prior researches and these models are applied to analyze low- and high-rise buildings designed in accordance with the relevant standards. Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) process is utilized to evaluate the effects of DF connection on structural seismic response of SMRFs. Afterwards, the structures’ performance in different response levels is probabilistically assessed by means of IDA and fragility curves. The results show that the seismic demand of SMRFs with DF and RBS connections are so similar, specifically for low-rise buildings. Likewise, SMRFs with DF connection provide up to 43% higher seismic demand in high-rise buildings compared to RBS connection. Eventually, DF connection can be used as an authentic option in SMRFs.