A fast approach for overcomplete sparse decomposition based on smoothed L0 norm

In this paper, a fast algorithm for overcomplete sparse decomposition, called SL0, is proposed. The algorithm is essentially a method for obtaining sparse solutions of underdetermined systems of linear equations, and its applications include underdetermined Sparse Component Analysis (SCA), atomic decomposition on overcomplete dictionaries, compressed sensing, and decoding real field codes. Contrary to previous methods, which usually solve this problem by minimizing the L1 norm using Linear Programming (LP) techniques, our algorithm tries to directly minimize the L0 norm. It is experimentally shown that the proposed algorithm is about two to three orders of magnitude faster than the state-of-the-art interior-point LP solvers, while providing the same (or better) accuracy.Comment: Accepted in IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing. For MATLAB codes, see (http://ee.sharif.ir/~SLzero). File replaced, because Fig. 5 was missing erroneousl

Iran

Iran lies between Iraq and, further north, Turkey to the west and Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and the Caspian Sea border Iran to the north, and thee Persian Gulf to the south. Iran covers 636,293 square miles. In the early decades of the twentieth century, many people lived by herding animals. Some of the Kurds and the Shahsevan in the northwest, Qashqai, Bakhtiary, Lurs, and Kamseh in the southwest, Baluch in the southeast, and Turkmen in the northeast lived in nomadic camps, traveling with their animals in search of water and pastures. Beginning in the 1920s, the two Pahlavi shahs, Reza Shah and his son, Mohammad Reza Shah, worked to pacify tribespeople and bring them under the control of the central government. Now, nomads have largely been settled and live in villages or migrate to urban areas

Iran

As the locale for one of the oldest continuing cultural, linguistic, and ethnic entities, Iran provides archaeological evidence for dance portrayed on Mesopotamean pottery dated to 5000 BCE (Zoka\u27, 1978). Evidence for continuing choreographic activity is documented in the historical writings of foreigners, from biblical times to ancient Greece to the Persian and Ottoman empires. Iconographic artworks showing dance also exist, such as silver objects from the Sasanian period (224-650 CE) and Persian miniatures from the twelfth century. Iran is, and most likely has always been, a place of immense ethnic and linguistic diversity, a continental crossroad open to influences from a wide variety of cultural sources. Its dance traditions reflect this diversity

Quantitative and qualitative sources of affect : how unexpectedness and valence relate to pleasantness and preference

Running title: Valence potential.Bibliography: leaves 34-37Supported in part by the National Institute of Education under contract no. HEW-NIE-C-400-76-011

Discussion of Iran Awakening by Shirin Ebadi

In preparation for our book discussion on Iran Awakening by Shirin Ebadi for our Iran: Beyond the Headlines series, we created some of our own discussion questions about the book. Please feel free to use for your own book discussion

Iran or Persia : what's in a name, the decline and fall of a tourism industry?

The future of tourism in Iran depends on the tenor of the government, whether it be Islamic traditionalist or Islamic liberalist. In Iran religion and politics are inescapably intertwined and inseparable, with the priority of religion over politics. This is highlighted in the changing emphasis of the UNESCO list where cultural heritage is being reshaped according to religious and political ideology. President Jimmy Carter, during a State dinner in Tehran in late December 1977, described Iran 'an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world'; this serves as a salient warning to those tempted to make predictions about the future of Iran. Anti -Israeli rhetoric, holocaust denial, uncertain nuclear aims and ambitions, pollution, traffic, false imprisonment, hangings and stoning all serve to undermine the attractiveness of Iran as a destination

Implementation Of Standard Clauses In Therapeutic Agreements Related To The Legal Protection Of Consumer Health Services

Penelitian ini dimaksudkan untuk menjawab dua permasalahan penelitian, “Bagaimana penerapan klausula baku dalam perjanjian terapeutik bagi konsumen jasa kesehatan?”, dan “Bagaimana penerapan perjanjian terapeutik dalam mewujudkan perlindungan hukum bagi konsumen jasa kesehatan”? Di Indonesia, konsep hubungan antara dokter dan pasien atau dikenal perjanjian terapeutik untuk pelayanan kesehatan masih menggunakan klausula baku UU Perlindungan Konsumen Indonesia yang menggolongkan pasien sebagai konsumen dan dokter sebagai pelaku usaha, sehingga ketentuan klausula baku tidak sesuai. bila diterapkan dalam konteks pelayanan kesehatan. Berbeda dengan hubungan antara pelaku usaha dan konsumen, hubungan antara dokter dan pasien lebih menekankan pada gotong royong (tidak sepihak) daripada menekankan “hasil” (resultant verbintenis) tetapi pada “penyembuhan dan keseriusan” (inspanning verbintenis). Dalam Disertasi ini digunakan Teori Perlindungan Hukum sebagai Grand Theory, Teori Kesehatan sebagai Middle Theory, dan Agreement Theory sebagai Applied Theory. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah Metode Yuridis Normatif yang menekankan pada pendekatan hukum positif (dogmatis) untuk mengkaji data sekunder. Kajian ini juga mengkaji asas-asas hukum, peraturan perundang-undangan, perbandingan hukum normatif dan hukum. Metode penelitian normatif digunakan sebagai acuan untuk mengkaji asas kepastian hukum yang berkaitan dengan masalah penelitian. Data penelitian yang digunakan berupa bahan hukum primer, bahan hukum sekunder dan bahan hukum tersier. Data primer berupa norma atau aturan dasar hukum sebagai peraturan yang digunakan dalam analisis yuridis kualitatif. Hasil penelitian menyimpulkan bahwa: (1) Penerapan klausula baku dalam perjanjian terapeutik belum memberikan perlindungan hukum baik dari perspektif Hukum Kesehatan maupun Teori Perjanjian, dan Undang-Undang Perlindungan Konsumen Indonesia belum memberikan perlindungan hukum kepada pasien yang menggunakan alat kesehatan jasa. (2) Putusan pengadilan tentang kasus malpraktik belum diselesaikan secara tuntas menurut perspektif UU Kesehatan

Quantitative determination of aflatoxin by high performance liquid chromatography in wheat silos in Golestan province, north of Iran

Background: Aflatoxins are the most common mycotoxins that contaminate crops. They are produced by fungi such as Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. Wheat (Tricitumaestivum) is one of the most important staple foods used in Iran, and the environmental conditions in the north of Iran are favorable to fungal growth. This study was designed in order to determine the aflatoxin concentration in wheat samples from silos in Golestan Province north of Iran. Methods: Samples were collected from three silos of Golestan province. First, aflatoxins were isolated using immu-noaffinity chromatography. Then the aflatoxin concentrations were determined by High performance liquid chroma-tography (HPLC) method and fluorescence detector. Results: Ten out of 34 samples (29.4 of samples) were contaminated by aflatoxins.No concentration was found above permitted aflatoxin levels in Iran (15 ng/g). In one sample (2.9), aflatoxin B1 was seen over the permissible limits in Iran. The highest level found in samples for total aflatoxin, aflatoxin B1, aflatoxin B2, aflatoxin G1 and aflatox-in G2 were 7.08 ng/g, 6.91 ng/g, 0.29 ng/g, 1.37 ng/g and 0.23 ng/g, respectively. No correlation was found between humidity levels in wheat samples contained aflatoxin and wheat samples without aflatoxin. Conclusion: Despite the total aflatoxins determined in samples were below the permissible limits in Iran, the 29 aflatoxin contamination rate can negatively affect health factors and it should not be neglected. So, it is predictable that if the storage duration of samples increases, the aflatoxin contamination levels will increase. © 2015, Iranian Journal of Public Health. All rights reserved