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.

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.

Heart disease-cardiovascular, cancer and obesity are the main causes of death and there are direct relationship between the consumption of high-fat foods and the incidence of these diseases. Therefore the demand for low-fat food products and probiotics has been dramatically increased. In this study, the effect of different levels of three hydrocolloids (inulin, chitosan and xanthan) at three levels (1, 2 and 3%) on survival of Lactobacillus acidophilus, physicochemical and sensory properties of yogurt during 15 days of storage was explored using a combined design. Increased levels of inulin and chitosan positively affected La-5 count, apparent viscosity, acidity and sensory scores during storage. Using graphical method of optimizing (overlaid contour plots), optimum ratios were: inulin 93.4%, xanthan 0.6% and chitosan 6%.

In hospitals, the issue of energy conservation, indoor climate control, and air conditioning is of particular importance, due to the high complexity and strict considerations in terms of comfort and safety. Hence, energy performance evaluation and energy efficiency measures for hospital departments are more complex compared to other buildings. In this study, the energy system of a hospital has been modeled using design-Builder software and the results have been validated by the hospital's energy bills. Then, several scenarios have been proposed in order to reduce the energy demand for heating or cooling and improve the efficiency of primary energy systems. The amount of energy conservation in each scenario has been estimated. Ghiasi Hospital, located in the southwest of Tehran, was selected as the case study. Based on the modeling step, the current energy system of the hospital consumes 3.08 GWh of electricity and 4.23 GWh of gas annually. Adding a thermal recovery system can reduce the gas consumption of the system by 30%. On the other hand, improving the lighting system can save 22% in electricity consumption.

Background and aim: Sensory deficits after stroke are common with prevalence rates variously reported to be 11% to 85%. In spite of the fact that Sensory deficits can decrease the quality of upper limb's movements and result in impairments in fine motor manipulation of objects, grasp and manipulative skills and finally decrease the patient's quality of life but commonly overlooked in stroke rehabilitation. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of sensory retraining on upper limb recovery.Materials and methods: In this study we studied 5 chronic stroke patients were participated using a single-system (A-B) design. During the baseline phase patient' s function and motor impairment of upper limb were measured by Fugl-Meyer and Motoricity Index and their hand dexterity were measured by Box and Block test on three days intervals. When Patients reached to a stable pattern of changes, their treatment program began. In this phase they received sensory retraining intervention for 6 weeks. Based on sensory retraining principles and according to each patient's abilities, intervention began with detection and localization of constant and moving touch and followed by higher discriminatory tasks, such as graphestesia. Then results of evaluations of two phases were analyzed.Results: Four patients showed significant improvements in upper limb function. The data showed significant improvements in motor impairments and hand dexterity in all of them.Conclusion: Regarding of significant recovery of upper limb function, motor impairment and hand dexterity of patients, sensory retraining can be considered as a practical method in rehabilitation of stroke patients. However further research with larger sample size is needed.