چقدر ایرانی هستم؟ در جستجوی هویتم (How Iraniam Am I Still? In Search of My Identity): 21st-Century Iranian Immigrant Identity Formation in the United States

This thesis studies Iranian student immigrants in the United States in the special political tensions between the two countries from 2000 until present. This research provides a holistic view of understanding the new identity which Iranian students have reconstructed at the intersection of Iranian culture and U.S. culture through their past identity in confronting a new situation. It describes how Iranian students use individual, intellectual, and social resources to deal with the ignorance was that imposed on them when the governments of the two countries began to fight each other to achieve more political power. Data is collected from three sources: interviews conducted by the researcher, interviews conducted by BBC Persian, and autoethnography. A middle range of discourse analysis is applied to analyze and interpret the Iranian students’ stories to discover who they are and what they have in the United States

Understanding the potential of Immersible Virtual Environment (IVEs) for Biophilic Design

Biophilic design, which translates literally to love of life [1], is a new and popular trend in sustainable building design. Architects are applying this style in different building types, from offices to schools to hospitals. Research that assesses mental health and cognitive benefits of biophilic design in interior environment and immersive reality is ongoing. This study intends to determine the capability of immersive virtual environment (IVE) to support building design by comparing the psychological and cognitive responses to natural elements in an interior environment (In-Situ) and IVE. Thirty-five LSU students from undergraduate and graduate levels participated in this experiment. A wearable heart rate monitor was used to measure heart rate variability in each condition. Individuals performed working memory tests after being exposed to each environment (In-Situ and IVE). After completing the working memory tests, they were asked to fill out the PANAS survey. The PANAS survey is about the participant\u27s mood at that moment. Additionally, if they were doing the IVEs part of the experiment, they were asked to answer the IPQ survey. The IPQ survey is about their presence in each virtual reality environment. Our results demonstrate that participants had a less negative mood, a more positive feeling, and a better cognitive performance in a biophilic environment in In-Situ. Furthermore, our results indicate that individuals had significantly fewer negative moods in a biophilic environment in IVEs. Our results also show that individuals had more positive moods in a biophilic environment in IVEs but not at 95% level of significance. Additionally, our results show that biophilic design’s effect on cognitive performance is not statistically significant. Since biophilic design did not change cognitive performance in IVEs, more studies need to be done to measure the required time to impact cognitive performance in IVEs

Defluroridation using a continuous electrocoagulation (EC) reactor

Electrocoagulation (EC) is a process of passing a steady electric current through liquid using aluminium or iron electrodes to remove impurities in water. When aluminium electrodes are used, the aluminium goes into solution at the anode and hydrogen gas is released at the cathode and dissolution of A1 anodes produces aqueous aluminium species. Experiments were undertaken to investigate the effects of the different parameters such as: current density (12.5-50 A/m2), flow rate (150-400 mL/min), initial pH (4-8), and initial fluoride concentration (5-15 mg/L) on the fluoride removal efficiency in a continuous flow electrocoagulator. The experimental results showed that for an initial fluoride concentration of 10 mg/L when flow rates varied from 150 to 300 mL/min, the residual fluoride concentration reached to less than 1 mg/L when the current densities were respectively increased from 18.75 A/m2 to 50A/m2. It appears that for higher defluoridation efficiency, the current density needs to be increased when flow rate is increased. The composition of the sludge produced was analysed using X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectrum. The strong presence of the hydroxyl-aluminium in the final pH range between 6 and 8, which maximizes the formation of fluoro-hydroxide aluminium complex, is the main reason for defluoridation by electrocoagulation. The results obtained showed that the continuous flow electrocoagulation technology is an effective process for defluoridation of potable water supplies and could also be utilized to the defluoridation of industrial wastewater

Effect of cooking methods on chemical composition, quality and cook loss of camel muscle (Longissimus dorsi) in comparison with veal

Camels are resistant to severe and dry weather conditions and their potential for meat production in such a situation are unique. However, despite the ability of camel meat to supply nutritional deficiencies (such as iron deficiency), it seems that replacement of veal with camel meat can be cheaper source for providing protein, minerals and energy. On the other hand, excessive consumption of fat and cholesterol associated with the overconsumption of meat and meat products has been linked to health risks such as cardiovascular disease; camel meat can therefore, be considered functionally superior because its fat and cholesterol are lower than those of veal. In this study, Longissimus dorsi muscle samples from camels and cows between the ages of one and three ages were selected and studied. Both types of meat were treated under three thermal treatments- microwave, roasting and braising- and proximate analysis and measurement of elements and cook loss were compared with veal. Samples that had undergone each heat treatment were compared with a raw sample as control. The results showed that cook loss affected all studied traits (chemical analysis and elements) and all of them increased after cooking except sodium and iron which showed no significant  difference (p < 0.01).Key words: Camel, Longissimus dorsi, proximate analysis, minerals, cook loss

Mixture Selection, Mechanism Design, and Signaling

We pose and study a fundamental algorithmic problem which we term mixture selection, arising as a building block in a number of game-theoretic applications: Given a function $g$ from the $n$-dimensional hypercube to the bounded interval $[-1,1]$, and an $n \times m$ matrix $A$ with bounded entries, maximize $g(Ax)$ over $x$ in the $m$-dimensional simplex. This problem arises naturally when one seeks to design a lottery over items for sale in an auction, or craft the posterior beliefs for agents in a Bayesian game through the provision of information (a.k.a. signaling). We present an approximation algorithm for this problem when $g$ simultaneously satisfies two smoothness properties: Lipschitz continuity with respect to the $L^\infty$ norm, and noise stability. The latter notion, which we define and cater to our setting, controls the degree to which low-probability errors in the inputs of $g$ can impact its output. When $g$ is both $O(1)$-Lipschitz continuous and $O(1)$-stable, we obtain an (additive) PTAS for mixture selection. We also show that neither assumption suffices by itself for an additive PTAS, and both assumptions together do not suffice for an additive FPTAS. We apply our algorithm to different game-theoretic applications from mechanism design and optimal signaling. We make progress on a number of open problems suggested in prior work by easily reducing them to mixture selection: we resolve an important special case of the small-menu lottery design problem posed by Dughmi, Han, and Nisan; we resolve the problem of revenue-maximizing signaling in Bayesian second-price auctions posed by Emek et al. and Miltersen and Sheffet; we design a quasipolynomial-time approximation scheme for the optimal signaling problem in normal form games suggested by Dughmi; and we design an approximation algorithm for the optimal signaling problem in the voting model of Alonso and C\^{a}mara

Educational file-Hydraulic-season5

جزوه آموزشی دکتر امام جمعه-هیدرولیک فصل

Application of response surface methodology to optimize the removal of nitrate from aqueous solutions using electrocoagulation

زمینه و هدف: نیترات یکی از مهم ترین آلاینده های موجود در طبیعت است که تهدیدی جدی برای بهداشت و سلامت انسان و کیفیت منابع آبی محسوب می شود. یکی از کارآمدترین روش های حذف این آلاینده، الکتروکواگولاسیون می باشد. روش بررسی: این مطالعه تجربی، در مقیاس پایلوت انجام گردید. نمونه ها به صورت سنتتیک و در غلظت های 300-100 میلی گرم بر لیتر نیترات تهیه گردید. متغیرهای مستقل شامل زمان واکنش، اختلاف پتانسیل الکتریکی و pH بودند. عملکرد فرایند بر اساس درصد حذف نیترات ارزیابی شد. تعیین تعداد آزمایشات، آنالیز آماری داده های آزمایشگاهی و بهینه سازی کارآیی حذف نیترات با به کارگیری روش پاسخ سطح و طرح مرکب مرکزی انجام شد. یافته ها: نتایج نشان داد که غلظت نیترات، زمان واکنش، اختلاف پتانسیل الکتریکی و pH، مربع غلظت نیترات و اثرات متقابل غلظت نیترات- اختلاف پتانسیل الکتریکی، غلظت نیترات- زمان واکنش، غلظت نیترات– pH و اختلاف پتانسیل الکتریکی- زمان واکنش، مهم ترین پارامترهای تأثیرگذار بر روی حذف نیترات به روش الکتروکواگولاسیون بودند. کارایی حذف نیترات در شرایط بهینه (زمان واکنش 68 دقیقه، اختلاف پتانسیل الکتریکی 17 ولت و pH برابر با 10، 88 بود. درجه مطلوبیت مدل در این شرایط 98 بود. نتیجه گیری: الکتروگواگولاسیون فرایندی موثر در کاهش نیترات است؛ همچنین روش پاسخ سطح با استفاده از طرح مرکب مرکزی برای بهینه سازی متغیرهای موثر در فرایند حذف نیترات به روش الکتروکواگولاسیون مناسب است