Public Diplomacy for a Global World: The United States and Iran

Complex global challenges – including environmental, economic, diplomatic, and health-related – span national boundaries and increasingly necessitate international cooperation. As a result, diplomacy has broadened from government-to-government relations to include government-to-public relations in an extended constituency of the global whole. Public diplomacy is a process by which governments attempt to attract and persuade various external publics to maintain relationships and encourage an environment for the approval of policies. Examining globalization, diplomacy, and power provides the foundation to assess a specific case of US public diplomacy with Iran. Systems theory provides a focus on the critical interactions, feedback processes, and relationships that are particularly helpful for analyzing public diplomacy in our global world. The history of US-Iran bilateral relations reflects embedded negative perceptions that each nation has for the other, maintaining a relationship of enmity. The findings of this thesis most notably suggest that public diplomacy should be an integral part of any diplomatic effort, necessitating credibility and legitimacy to function best. The Obama administration’s efforts have been successful in some specific diplomatic developments, yet internal and external conflicts impede the building and maintenance of the essential elements that are needed for sustainable, meaningful public diplomacy

Solvent Selection for Liquid-Liquid Extraction of Acetic Acid from Biomass Hydrolysate

Biofuels are one of the most hopeful alternative energy sources to fossil fuels. However, the processing and production of biofuels needs improvement to be economically competitive in the current market. One drawback is the presence of naturally occurring compounds that decrease the bioethanol production rate and yield; these are called inhibitors. A resolution to this problem is to remove the inhibitors from biomass fermentation broth prior to fermentation. This project examined liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) for removal of acetic acid, a major inhibitor. Initially, a stock solution of glucose, xylose, acetic acid, and water was combined with an additional organic solvent to form a two-phase system. After mixing, the concentrations of the components in the water phase were analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The compounds remaining in the solvent-rich phase were calculated via a simple mass balance. Nine different organic solvents were tested with the same mixture of compounds, after which the four most effective solvents were tested with liquid fermentation broth. The four best solvents were: ethyl acetate, butyl acetate, ethyl propionate, and isobutyl acetate. These four solvents had the highest split fraction, meaning that the acetic acid separated in the desired direction into the organic solvent. Butyl acetate was the best solvent because it extracted the most acetic acid, while retaining the sugars within the aqueous phase. Further research must be done on the organic phase analysis to ensure that the compound mass balance is closed. This research can help promote a more efficient production of biofuel

Hybrid Turbo-Shaft Engine Digital Twinning for Autonomous Aircraft via AI and Synthetic Data Generation

Autonomous aircraft are the key enablers of future urban services, such as postal and transportation systems. Digital twins (DTs) are promising cutting-edge technologies that can transform the future transport ecosystem into an autonomous and resilient system. However, since DT is a data-driven solution based on AI, proper data management is essential in implementing DT as a service (DTaaS). One of the challenges in DT development is the availability of real-life data, particularly for training algorithms and verifying the functionality of DT. The current article focuses on data augmentation through synthetic data generation. This approach can facilitate the development of DT in case the developers do not have enough data to train the machine learning (ML) algorithm. The current twinning approach provides a prospective ideal state of the engine used for proactive monitoring of the engine’s health as an anomaly detection service. In line with the track of unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs) for urban air mobility in smart city applications, this paper focuses specifically on the common hybrid turbo-shaft in drones/helicopters. However, there is a significant gap in real-life similar synthetic data generation in the UAV domain literature. Therefore, rolling linear regression and Kalman filter algorithms were implemented on noise-added data, which simulate the data measured from the engine in a real-life operational life cycle. For both thermal and hybrid models, the corresponding DT model has shown high efficiency in noise filtration and a certain amount of predictions with a lower error rate on all engine parameters except the engine torque

3-(1-Methyl­pyrrolidin-2-yl­idene)-3H-indole sesquihydrate

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C13H14N2·1.5H2O, contains two similar mol­ecules of 3-(1-methyl­pyrrolidin-2-yl­idene)-3H-indole, (I), and three water mol­ecules. (I) is the product of reacting indole with 1-methyl­pyrrolidin-2-one in the presence of phospho­rus oxychloride. Both organic molecules are almost completely planar; the maximum distances above and below the least-squares plane through all the atoms of mol­ecule 1 are 0.050 (8) and −0.045 (8) Å, respectively, and the deviations for mol­ecule 2 are 0.096 (8) and −0.059 (8) Å, respectively. In the crystal, the two crystallographically different mol­ecules alternate in π-stacked columns [centroid–centroid distances = 3.729 (5) and 3.858 (5) Å], which are linked by O—H⋯N hydrogen bonds to a network of hydrogen-bonded water mol­ecules. O—H⋯O inter­actions are also present

Ultrasonographic findings of some ocular structures in Caspian miniature horse

Summary Ultrasonography is a relatively easy, safe and non-invasive examination method which can be used in diagnosis of ocular disorders as complementary to routine ophthalmic examinations. As there has been no collated study undertaken on the normal measurements of ocular structures in Caspian miniature horse, obtaining these measurements could be a benchmark to diagnose some of the diseases and eye problems of this miniature breed. Transpalpebral ultrasonographic scanning of left and right eyes of six Caspian horses was performed using a 10-13 MHz transducer. Qualitative ultrasonographic findings of the eyes were described and measurements of the ocular structures were obtained. Mean ± standard deviation of the anterior-posterior length of the eye axis, thickness of the lens, depth of the anterior chamber and depth of vitreous were as 32.9 ± 1.0, 10.8 ± 0.8, 3.0 ± 0.5 and 18.3 ± 1.0 mm, respectively

Survey on fungal, parasites and epibionts infestation on the Astacus leptodactylus (Eschscholtz, 1823), in Aras Reservoir West Azarbaijan, Iran

A total of 394 (255 males, 139 females) live freshwater crayfish Astacus leptodactylus from four stations of Aras reservoir in West Azarbaijan Province (North-Western Iran) were studied during the winter until early autumn of 2009 for the presence of parasites, epibionts and fungal agents. Parasitological surveys were carried out on gills, exoskeleton and internal organs, mycological examinations on the exoskeleton (the legs, abdominal cuticle and the eggs). 9 epibionts and parasites peritrich protozoans including: Cothurnia sieboldii (68.5%), Zoothamnium spp. (56.6%), Vorticella similis (45.6%), Chilodonella spp. (0.5%), Podophrya fixa (7.8%), Epistylis chrysemidis (53.2%), Pyxicola annulata (66%), Opercularia articulata (19.8%), Tetrahymena pyriformis (0.5%) were recorded. From Metazoan parasites group, Branchiobdella kozarovi (71%) as the first observation was the only parasite recorded from exoskeleton with prevalence (100%) during spring and summer of the study year. Infected gills were heavily damaged with Aeolosoma hemprichi (Annelid) in winter with 90% prevalence. Other epibiont fouling organisms such as Rotatoria, free living Nematods were observed in this survey. Furthermore, on the mycotic agents identified Penicillium expansum, Aspergillus flavus, Alternaria sp., Fusarium sp. and Saprolegnia sp. were isolated in IM media and identified with slides cultured from cuticular melanized lesions and eggs of infected specimens. This is the first investigation on epibionts, parasites and fungal organisms of the endemic crayfish in Aras reservoir, Iran

Nutritional value of raw soybeans, extruded soybeans, roasted soybeans and tallow as fat sources in early lactating dairy cows

Thirty multiparous Holstein cows (29.8 ± 4.01days in milk; 671.6 ± 31.47 kg of body weight) were used in a completely randomized design to compare nutritional value of four fat sources including tallow, raw soybeans, extruded soybeans and roasted soybeans for 8 weeks. Experimental diets were a control containing 27.4 % alfalfa silage, 22.5% corn silage, and 50.1% concentrate, and four diets with either tallow, raw soybean, extruded soybean, or roasted soybean added to provide 1.93% supplemental fat. Dry matter and NEL intakes were similar among treatments, while cows fed fat diets had significantly (P<0.05) high NEL intakes when compared to control with no fat. Supplemental fat, whether tallow or full fat soybeans increased milk production (1.89-2.45 kg/d; P<0.01) and FCM production (1.05-2.79; P<0.01). Milk fat yield and percentage of cows fed fat-supplemented diets were significantly (P<0.01 and P<0.05 respectively) higher than control. Between fat-supplemented diets, roasted soybean caused highest milk fat yield and extruded soybean caused lowest milk fat yield. There was no significant effect of supplemental fat on the milk protein and lactose content and yield. Feed efficiency of fat-supplemented diets was significantly (P<0.01) higher than control. Body weight, body weight change and BCS (body condition score) of cows, as well as energy balance and energy efficiency were similar between treatments. In conclusion, while there was no significant effect of fat sources on production response of cows, fat originating from heat-treated soybean help to minimize imported RUP (rumen undegradable protein) sources level as fish meal in comparison with tallow and raw soybean oil. In the Current study, there was no statistical significance among nutritional values of oil from extruded soybeans and roasted soybeans

Epidemiological alteration in pathogens found in ground meat in Iran: unexpected predominance of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis

Colonization of the human and animal intestinal tract with potential pathogenic bacteria is correlated with the risk of contamination of food products. The current study analyzed the prevalence of Enterococcus faecalis and Escherichia coli O157H7 in ground meat in Ilam, Iran. Both index organisms were identified following standard food microbiological methods. For E. faecalis, the susceptibility to vancomycin was tested, and PCR was used to check for the vanA gene. E. faecalis was present in all 24 ground meat samples, with no E. coli O157H7 detected in samples. The analysis showed the presence of the vanA gene in 5/24 vancomycin resistant enterococci. In conclusion, this study for the first time demonstrates the presence of vancomycin-resistant enterococci in ground meat in Iran. This observation warrants further epidemiologic investigation and should be followed up in the future

Mitigating the Inrush Current of V/V Transformers using Railway Conditioners

Inrush current is high-magnitude current drawn by power transformers upon energization. The severity of inrush current depends on factors such as the transformer’s residual flux and the voltage phase angle at the energization instant. This paper proposes a flux matching method for the energization of V/V traction transformers to mitigate inrush current. This is achieved by adjusting the residual flux of the core to an appropriate reference value and then obtaining the proper energization instant. To this end, the method only requires knowledge of nominal voltage and excitation current, eliminating the need to acquire transformer’s parameters/design information. The railway power conditioner, typically present at the low voltage side of the V/V transformer, is used as a current source to inject sinusoidal current into the transformer windings before its energization. The reference residual flux is calculated based on the circuit breaker operating characteristics. The energization instant is determined such that the adjusted flux density matches the steady-state flux expected with respect to the applied voltage. The proposed method is validated by conducting over 14,000 simulations under different conditions using PSCAD/EMTDC. The method is also implemented and successfully tested on a laboratory-scale test rig, which verifies its effectiveness in more realistic conditions