Morocco At the Crossroads of Europe, Africa and the Middle East

Soleiman Kiasatpour, an Associate Professor of International & Comparative Politics in the Department of Political Science at Western Kentucky University, talked about “Morocco At the Crossroads of Europe, Africa and the Middle East” in our Far Away Places series sponsored by the Friends of WKU Libraries on the evening of April 12, 2018, at Barnes & Noble Bookstore. Soleiman Kiasatpour is an Associate Professor of International & Comparative Politics in the Department of Political Science at Western Kentucky University. He received his PhD from the University of California, Riverside in 1998 for a dissertation on “Regime Transition in Post-Soviet Central Asia: The Cases of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan” which involved extensive field work in Central Asia in 1994 and 1996. Born in the U.S. to Iranian parents he moved to Iran when he was 10 and lived there until his 20s. He experienced a revolution, interstate war and being a “foreign” student upon returning to the United States as an undergraduate in Texas. He’s taught at the University of California, Riverside, California State University, Dominguez Hills and South Texas College where he met his wife who taught French. He joined the faculty at WKU in 2002 and currently teaches classes on Middle East politics, international relations, comparative politics and political terrorism. His research focuses on regime transitions, Middle East politics and public diplomacy and he’s frequently asked to comment about Middle Eastern affairs for various media. He’s lead Study Abroad Programs to Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands where he taught courses on Islam and citizenship in Europe, Middle East politics and Islam and politics. His interest in Morocco began in Brussels, Belgium where over a quarter of the population are from Turkey and Morocco. He taught a course there on identity politics of old and new immigrants. In the spring of 2013 a Moroccan Fulbright professor teaching Arabic at WKU enrolled in his U.S. foreign policy class. With his help, he took his first group of student to Morocco in 2015 Last summer he lead his third study abroad program to Morocco where WKU students interacted with local public officials and upon return wrote about their experience in an article entitled, “Local Governance in Morocco During Political Instability” with a focus on Tetouan, a city of some 400,000 people near Tangier on the Mediterranean Coast. He’ll be making a return trip to Morocco this June and July

Designing and manufacturing of solar imaging and tracking system

Abstract – in this study, designing and manufacturing of solar imaging and tracking system in order to research and spectroscopy applications are investigated. The device has the ability to be used as a Telescope, spectroscope, spectrophotometer and spectrohelioscope. The results obtained from this device are used in the various field of research such as absorption spectra of the surface of the sun, transit of planets in front of the sun, Doppler effects, evaluation of the Fraunhofer lines, plot of intensity versus wavelength and studying of Solar Flares. In this research, design and manufacture of the device, along with some of the results, are reported

Period change and δ Scuti pulsations of eclipsing binary star RZ Cassiopiae

RZ Cas is an Algol-type partial eclipsing binary, the secondary component of which has filled its Roche lobe. Its visual magnitude is 6.18 and its period is 1.195 days. The most important characteristics of RZ Cas are period change (due to mass transfer) and anomalies in the primary minimum of its light curve (due to δ Scuti pulsations). In this paper, light curves of RZ Cas are obtained using the Johnson's U, B, V, and R filters at Isfahan University Observatory, and B and V filters at Biruni Observatory of Shiraz University. Continuous photometric measurements have also been made to detect δ Scuti type pulsations. A new ephemeris and period is obtained: Min.I =HJD2453620.5500 + 1d.1952639 E, and a mass transfer rate of 1.5×10 -7 M⊙ yr -1 is estimated. None of the observed primary minima is flat as found by some observers before. The residuals from the observed minus computed light curves of the system give the pulsation light curves of the primary component. The frequencies of δ Scuti pulsation are searched for using the Period04 program. It is found that the dominant frequency is 65.5-68.5 cycle/day, corresponding to a period of 21-22 min

A study of the oscillator strengths and line strenghts of Agl and AuI Using the Coulomb approximation

  Single-valence electron atoms are an important class of atoms. Their oscillator strengths are their important properties. Knowing the oscillator strengths one can easity calculate the transition probabilities of the spectral lines and hence the lifetimes of energy levels of most atoms. The oscillator strengths of the spectral lines of most atoms are not knoen with sufficient accuracy due to the experimental difficulties. The results of most measurements are subject to large inaccuracies due to uncertainties in vapor pressure data. A quick and simple theoretical method for calculation of atomic oscillator strength seems to be the Coulomb approximation of Bates and Damagaard. This method reveals some interesting properties that are generally confirmed by experimental results. In this paper, we have studied oscillator strengths and line strengths of the different allowed transitions in AgI and AuI using the Coulomb approximation. The log (λfg) curves(λ, f and g are the wavelength of transition, oscillator strength and statistical weight of upper level, respectively) versus the reciprocal of the principal quantum number of upper level, 1/n, show a linear behavior only for large values of the principal quantum number of lower level. The effect of change of total angular momentum,Δ J, in the curvature and slope of the plotted curves has been also investigated. The deviation of the curves from straight lines, which indicates failure of the Coulomb approximation is due to the exchange forces. In addition, the n3fg curves   (n , the effective total quantum number of upper level) have been plotted versus n for different allowed transitions in AgL and AuI. It has been found that f is proportional to 1/n and this proportionality is linear for large values of n . For some transitions, however, there is a significant deviation from the linear dependence for large values of n , which can be attributed to the signature of total angular momentum quantum numbers of the initial and final states of jumping electron