Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is one of the most successful techniques of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and is mostly in use for the treatment of infertility with male factors. In this method, before injecting sperm into the intracytoplasmic of the oocyte, cumulus cells around the oocyte must be stripped to facilitate the injection process. To achieve this, both enzymatic and mechanical methods are used in embryological laboratories for denudation, which has major deficiencies, including the possibility of damaging the oocyte prior to the injection process. In this research, a microfluidic-based device is introduced for the separation of cumulus cells around the oocyte with minimum manual operations. The results prove high efficiency, and non-destructive denudation of the oocyte with the reduced amount of culture medium leads to the low-cost preparation process of oocytes. The process can also be integrated with ICSI chips under development and will be reported shortly.

Objectives: This study aimed to compare the marginal fit of temporary restorations fabricated by the conventional chairside method, 3D printing, and milling. Materials and Methods: In this in vitro, experimental study, 14 temporary restorations were conventionally fabricated over an implant abutment and analog that had been mounted in a phantom model at the site of canine tooth, using autopolymerizing acrylic resin and putty index. In digital manufacturing, the original model was scanned, and the final restoration was designed. Fourteen temporary restorations were milled out of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) blocks, and 14 others were printed by a 3D printer. Temporary crowns were placed on the abutment, and images were obtained from specific areas under a stereomicroscope at x100 magnification to measure the amount of marginal gap. Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and Tukey’ s test (α =0. 05). Results: The mean marginal gap values for the temporary crowns in the 3D printing, milling, and chairside groups were 91. 40, 75. 28 and 51. 23 µ m, respectively. The crowns that were conventionally fabricated chairside exhibited the lowest marginal gap, and the difference in this respect was significant among the three groups (P<0. 05). Conclusion: Temporary crowns fabricated by the chairside method showed significantly smaller marginal gap; however, the marginal gap of all three groups was within the clinically acceptable range.

One of the issues of reliable performance in the power grid is the existence of electromechanical oscillations between interconnected generators. The number of generators participating in each electromechanical oscillation mode and the frequency oscillation depends on the structure and function of the power grid. In this paper, to improve the transient nature of the network and damping electromechanical fluctuations, a decentralized robust adaptive control method based on dynamic programming has been used to design a stabilizing power system and a complementary static var compensator (SVC) controller. By applying a single line to ground fault in the network, the robustness of the designed control systems is demonstrated. Also, the simulation results of the method used in this paper are compared with controllers whose parameters are adjusted using the PSO algorithm. The simulation results show the superiority of the decentralized robust adaptive control method based on dynamic programming for the stabilizing design of the power system and the complementary SVC controller. The performance of the control method is tested using the IEEE 16-machine, 68-bus, 5-area is verified with time domain simulation.

Non-cooperative intelligent control agents (ICAs) with dedicated cost functions, can lead the system to poor performance and in some cases, closed-loop instability. A robust solution to this challenge is to place the ICAs at the feedback Nash equilibrium point (FNEP) of the differential game between them. This paper introduces the designation of a robust decentralized infinite horizon LQR control system based on the FNEP for a linear time-invariant system. For this purpose, two control strategies are defined. The first one is a centralized infinite horizon LQR (CIHLQR) problem (i.e. a supervisory problem), and the second one is a decentralized control problem (i.e. an infinite horizon linear-quadratic differential game). Then, while examining the optimal solution of each of the above strategies on the performance of the other, the necessary and sufficient conditions for the equivalence of the two problems are presented. In the absence of the conditions, by using the least-squares error criterion, an approximated CIHLQR controller is presented. It is shown that the theorems could be extended from a two-agent control system to a multi-agent system. Finally, the results are evaluated using the simulation results of a Two-Area non-reheat power system.

It is more important to improve and complete the wastewater process in order to reuse and return it to the production line. In this study, the hydrogen peroxide/ozone process (Peroxone) was investigated as a supplementary step in paper mill wastewater treatment to reduce the amount of chemical oxygen demand and remove E. coli. In this regard, using the Box-Behnken design method based on the response surface method to optimize and investigate the effect of three variables governing the ozonation process, including the amount of hydrogen peroxide consumed (ml), the amount of ozone input (mg/min) and ozonation time (min) were used. The results showed that the amount of ozone and hydrogen peroxide had the greatest effect for reducing COD (up to about 75%). Also, all three variables have played a significant role in increasing the efficiency of the Peroxone process and even completely eliminating E. coli. In determining the optimal conditions, the amount of ozone (146 mg/min), the amount of hydrogen peroxide (2ml) and the duration of ozonation (23 min), the lowest amount of residual COD (73 mg/L) and the highest efficiency (75% removal of E. coli) are predicted. The results showed that due to the interaction of ozone and hydrogen peroxide, the peroxone process performance was less efficient than the ozonation process alone.