Solitary confinement, Section 350, Evin prison in Tehran

I was born in 1985 in Tehran, Iran. I started my political and human rights activism at university by founding a secular student association and publishing student magazines. Because of this, the university disciplinary committee did not allow me to study for two semesters. I was arrested by intelligence officials in 2008 and spent 38 days in solitary confinement in Evin prison (Tehran). That was the first time I was faced with psychological torture. During the repression after the presidential election in 2009, I was arrested for a second time. It was by the Revolutionary Guards (‘Sepah-e- Pasdaran’) and this time I spent about nine months in solitary confinement. This time marked me in many senses. Finally, because of those two incidents, I was convicted by the Revolutionary Court and sentenced to prison. After about six years in Section 350, Evin Prison, I was freed in 2014

Leveraging Sensory Data in Estimating Transformer Lifetime

Transformer lifetime assessments plays a vital role in reliable operation of power systems. In this paper, leveraging sensory data, an approach in estimating transformer lifetime is presented. The winding hottest-spot temperature, which is the pivotal driver that impacts transformer aging, is measured hourly via a temperature sensor, then transformer loss of life is calculated based on the IEEE Std. C57.91-2011. A Cumulative Moving Average (CMA) model is subsequently applied to the data stream of the transformer loss of life to provide hourly estimates until convergence. Numerical examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach for the transformer lifetime estimation, and explores its efficiency and practical merits.Comment: 2017 North American Power Symposium (NAPS), Morgantown, WV, 17-19 Sep. 201

Phenotypic and molecular characterization of Chaetopyrena penicillata from Iran with description of a hyphomycete synanomorph

During a survey of fungi associated with Russian olive fruit rot in Northern Iran, a coelomycete fungus with setose pycnidia was isolated from symptomatic fruits. The fungus was identified as Chaetopyrena penicillata based on morphological characteristics and sequence data of ITS and LSU rDNA. A hyphomycete synanamorph, which was observed in pure cultures of this species for the first time, is described. The morphology and phylogeny of Chaetopyrena penicillata is discussed

Evaluation of FEM modelling for stress propagation under pressure wheel of corn planter

Seeds need a certain range of pressure in the soil bed to germinate and grow ideally. Usually pressure from machinery wheels applies more pressure and prevents seed ideal germination. A finite element model (FEM) was developed to investigate stress propagation in the soil. The pressure wheel of corn planter with 4 km/h speed was chosen to analyze the stress in a sandy-loamy soil. A real corn planter tire was modeled with its mechanical characteristics and imported into ABAQUS/Explicit environment. Frictional contact (based on Mohr-coulomb theory) was used for the soil-tire interaction. The soil was considered as an elastic-perfectly plastic material. Drucker-Prager model was used for soil behavior in plastic region. To evaluate the stress under pressure wheel, FEM results were compared with the Boussinesq theoretical model. On both models, soil stresses decrease with soil depth increasing from zero depth on soil surface to 0.2 m depth. On FEM, stress distribution varied between 47.8 to 8.1 kPa in depth of 0.01 to 0.2 m. FEM and Boussinesq models showed high correlation with each other (R2=95). Our results indicate that the stress under pressure wheels can be properly predicted by using FEM, allowing the pressure simulation to reduce the negative impacts on seed germination and crop yield

Thefromdominancepatients andof healthypilus isletindividuals1 in pneumococcal isolates collected

Background: Pili in Streptococcus pneumoniae have been shown to be one of the adherence factors for epithelial cells in the human upper respiratory tract. Two types of pilus-like structures (pilus islet-1 and pilus islet-2) have been distinguished in S. pneumoniae. Objectives: To investigate the presence of pilus islet-1 (PI-1) in S. pneumoniae and the correlation between our isolates. Materials and Methods: In this study, 162 S. pneumoniae isolates were collected fromclinical specimens, and normal flora were also examined for the distribution of PI-1 using the presence of the rlrA and rrgC genes as markers for this islet and sipA as an indicator of pilus islet-2 (PI-2). BOX-PCR analyses were performed to determine the genetic relationship between isolates. Results: The results confirmed the presence of rlrA and rrgC genes in both clinical (n = 39) and normal flora (n = 26) isolates. Theminimal inhibitory concentration results revealed that the rate of resistance of these isolates to the three antibiotics tested ranged from 26 for penicillin to 46 for erythromycin and tetracycline. Furthermore, 12 of the isolates were resistant to all three antibiotics. Strain typing using repetitive element BOX-PCR analysis among the 65 isolates identified 8 different band patterns. Conclusions: Our results indicated that the dissemination of PI-1 was widespread in S. pneumoniae isolates, although no PI-2 isolates were detected. Furthermore, the frequency of rlrA and rrgC of clinical isolates was significantly more than that of normal flora isolates. © 2016, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences

A novel intervention technology for cerebral palsy: Brain stimulation

A common pediatric disorder with posture and motor dysfunction in neurological diseases is known as cerebral palsy (CP). Recently, a series of effective techniques have been developed for treatment of CP. These promising methods need high-tech equipment for brain stimulation and mainly classified into invasive and no-invasive approaches. This study aimed to introduce these techniques for treatment of patients who suffer from CP. The potential and performance of currently available brain stimulation techniques have been mentioned in detail. Moreover, the clinical application, safety, efficacy and challenges of these methods have been discussed. Here we review the recent advances in the CP treatment with an emphasis on brain stimulation techniques. © 2019, Iranian Child Neurology Society. All rights reserved

Practicalities of BVID detection on aerospace-grade CFRP materials with optical fibre sensors

Several reports have recently shown the capability of optical fibre sensors for the detection of barely visible impact damage (BVID) on CFRP laminates, based on changes in the optical signal before and after impact. Although this approach was shown to work well in lab conditions, little attention has been paid so far to its practicality when considering realistic ambient conditions or to the detection range. In this work we attempt to derive BVID detection thresholds for fibre Bragg grating-based sensors, by considering standardized temperature and vibration levels for aerospace applications. To the best of our knowledge this is the first practical threshold assessment for BVID detection on aerospace-grade CFRP for such sensors. We have put our detection thresholds to the test by analysing a total of 24 BVIDs on 12 panels made from 4 different CFRP material systems and derived commendable sizes for the detection range on the different material systems