Akhond Khorasani’s Viewpoints towards Modern Concepts

Abstract: In 1906, at the dawn of the twentieth century, Akhond Khorasani assumed the leadership of the Iranian constitutional revolution. He was a prominent figure in Iranian history regarding whom this paper sets out to unveil his mentality vis-a-vis the modern concepts of freedom, constitutionalism, justice and parliament. Before the occurrence of the constitutional revolution, such concepts were not present in Iran’s political – social culture. These were modern concepts which entered Iran coming from the west and were subsequently utilized during the constitutional revolution. As the revolution’s leader, Akhond Khorasani made use of these words in his political literature. Discovering the manner in which he integrated and used these concepts in his works is the objective of this article. In order to reach this objective, all the primary sources that included the Akhond’s announcements, letters, telegraphs, answers to questions and fatwas through which he specified his political mentality are made use of in this quantitative research where the method of evident content analysis is implemented for the purpose of data analysis. Iran is a society intertwined to a high degree with religion and thus the clergy are highly influential on the people. The understanding and comprehension of traditional clergies’ mentality in relation to modern concepts has the potential to shed light on the issue of whether this influence can be continued. Key words: Constitutional revolution; Freedom; Justice; Parliament; Political culture; Clergies Résumé: En 1906, à l'aube du XXe siècle, Akhond Khorasani a assumé le leadership de la révolution constitutionnelle iranienne. Il est une figure marquante dans l'histoire iranienne, et cet article se propose de dévoiler sa mentalité vis-à-vis des concepts modernes de liberté, de constitutionnalisme , de justice et de parlement. Avant l'apparition de la révolution constitutionnelle, ce genre de concepts n'exsitaient pas dans la culture politique et sociales de l'Iran. Ce sont des concepts modernes qui sont entrés en Iran en provenance de l'ouest et ont ensuite été utilisées au cours de la révolution constitutionnelle. En tant que le leader de la révolution, Akhond Khorasani fait l’usage de ces mots dans son discours politique. L’objectif de cet article est de découverir la manière dont il a intégré et utilisé ces concepts dans ses œuvres. Afin d'atteindre cet objectif, toutes les sources primaires, y compris les annonces de Akhond, ses lettres, ses télégraphes, ses réponses aux questions et les fatwas dans lesquels il a précisé sa mentalité politique, ont été utilisés dans cette recherche quantitative lorsque la méthode d'analyse de contenu évident est mis en œuvre pour l'analyse des données. L'Iran est une société liée étroitement à la religion et donc les clergés sont très influents sur le peuple. La compréhension de la mentalité des clergés traditionnels par rapport à des concepts modernes a le potentiel d’éclairer la question de savoir si cette influence peut être poursuivie. Mots clés: Révolution constitutionnelle; Liberté; Justice; Parlement; Culture politique; Clergé

Numerical investigation of serpentine earth-to-air heat exchanger for passive building heating systems by recovery criteria

This paper investigates the performance of the earth-to-air heat exchanger (EAHE) system in the winter for Mashhad. A three-dimensional model of novel serpentine geometry for use in the passive building heating system is proposed. A new and visual method of recovery analysis is performed for regaining the soil energy by considering a period of time to stop the system. The thermal performance of the system is evaluated by analyzing the derating factor, knee point, and heat transfer evaluation criteria for a serpentine model of EAHE. Results demonstrate that the thermal conductivity of the soil and the duration of EAHE's continuous operation has a significant impact on its transient thermal performance. By employing soil thermal conductivities of 1, 2, and 4 W/m.K, the temperature of the outlet reduced 21 %, 12 %, and 6 %, respectively. Finally, the results indicate the highly better performance of the system in soils with higher thermal conductivity during long-term. The temperature of the outlet air in the 24-hours operation mode decreases compared with the 1-hour operation mode. A new method of recovery analysis is performed for regaining soil energy. This paper aims to develop a new model of EAHE system to maximize the energy use of buildings

Treatment of Petroleum Drill Cuttings Using Stabilization/Solidification Method by Cement and Modified Clay Mixes

High organic content in petroleum drill cuttings is a substantial obstacle which hinders cement hydration and subsequently decreases the clean-up efficiency of the stabilization/solidification (S/S) process. In this study, a modified clayey soil (montmorillonite with low to moderate polarity) was used as an additive to cement. Because of its high adsorption capacity, the clay is capable of mitigating the destructive role of organic materials and preventing their interference with the hydration process. Mixes containing different ratios of cement, waste and modified clay were prepared and tested for their mechanical and chemical characteristics. Total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) and Pb content of the samples were analyzed as well. For this purpose, the mixes were subjected to unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) tests. The results indicated that the specimens with 28-day curing time at a cement/waste ratio of 25% or higher (w/w) and 10% modified clay (w/w) met the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) criterion for compressive strength. Moreover, a reduction of 94% in the leaching of TPH was observed with the specimens undergoing the TCLP with a cement/waste ratio of 30% (w/w) and a clay/waste ratio of 30% (w/w). Finally, the specimens with 30% cement/waste and 10% clay/waste ratios showed the least concentration (6.14%) of leached Pb

ISD: Self-Supervised Learning by Iterative Similarity Distillation

Recently, contrastive learning has achieved great results in self-supervised learning, where the main idea is to push two augmentations of an image (positive pairs) closer compared to other random images (negative pairs). We argue that not all random images are equal. Hence, we introduce a self supervised learning algorithm where we use a soft similarity for the negative images rather than a binary distinction between positive and negative pairs. We iteratively distill a slowly evolving teacher model to the student model by capturing the similarity of a query image to some random images and transferring that knowledge to the student. We argue that our method is less constrained compared to recent contrastive learning methods, so it can learn better features. Specifically, our method should handle unbalanced and unlabeled data better than existing contrastive learning methods, because the randomly chosen negative set might include many samples that are semantically similar to the query image. In this case, our method labels them as highly similar while standard contrastive methods label them as negative pairs. Our method achieves better results compared to state-of-the-art models like BYOL and MoCo on transfer learning settings. We also show that our method performs better in the settings where the unlabeled data is unbalanced. Our code is available here: https://github.com/UMBCvision/ISD

Co-Optimization of Energy Losses and Transformer Operating Costs Based on Smart Charging Algorithm for Plug-in Electric Vehicle Parking Lots

The global transport sector has a significant share of greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) can play a vital role in the reduction of pollution. However, high penetration of PEVs can pose severe challenges to power systems, such as an increase in energy losses and a decrease in the transformers expected life. In this paper, a new day-ahead co-optimization algorithm is proposed to reduce the unwanted effects of PEVs on the power system. The aim of the proposed algorithm is minimizing the cost of energy losses as well as transformer operating cost by the management of active and reactive powers simultaneously. Moreover, the effect of harmonics, which are produced by the charger of PEVs, are considered in the proposed algorithm. Also, the transformer operating cost is obtained from a method that contains the purchase price, loading, and losses cost of the transformer. Another advantage of the proposed algorithm is that it can improve power quality parameters, e.g., voltage and power factor of the distribution network by managing the reactive power. Afterward, the proposed algorithm is applied to a real distribution network. The results show that the proposed algorithm optimizes the daily operating cost of the distribution network efficiently. Finally, the robustness of the proposed algorithm to the number and distribution of PEVs is verified by simulation results

The cross dominancy and structural disorders of head and vertebral column

زمینه و هدف: برتری متقاطع وجود چشم غالب در یک سمت و دست غالب در سمت دیگر بدن می باشد. این حالت می تواند سبب بروز اختلالاتی در وضعیت سر و ستون فقرات شود. هدف این مطالعه، بررسی ارتباط بین برتری متقاطع چشمی با ناهنجاری های ساختاری سر و ستون فقرات در دانشجویان دانشگاه علوم پزشکی زاهدان بود. روش بررسی: در این مطالعه توصیفی-تحلیلی،300 دانشجوی دانشگاه علوم پزشکی زاهدان به صورت تصادفی انتخاب و چشم غالب آنها با تست مایلز تعیین شد. سپس افراد به دو گروه با و بدون برتری متقاطع تقسیم شدند. وجود یا عدم وجود اختلالات ساختاری ستون فقرات و وضعیت قرار گیری سر با استفاده از صفحه شطرنجی و شاقول در دو گروه بررسی شد. داده ها با استفاده از آزمون کای دو تجزیه و تحلیل گردید. یافته ها: از 300 مورد، 76 نفر (3/25 ) دارای برتری متقاطع و 224 نفر (7/74 ) فاقد برتری متقاطع بودند. بین برتری متقاطع چشم و دست با اسکولیوزیس (001/0

Akhond Khorasani's viewpoints towards the modern concepts of freedom and justice

This article seeks to understand the mentality of Akhond Khorasani, the leader of the Iranian constitutional revolution (1905-1911) regarding the political and social concepts such as freedom and justice. In the Iranian society, concepts such as freedom and justice were always affected by various kinds of understanding and comprehension. These concepts were never interpreted based on their original and true meanings which are essentially the principles of democracy. In other words, the Iranian society was faced some problems and difficulties in absorbing these concepts and it seems even nowadays these concepts do not possess their true meaning in the political social culture of Iran and everybody explain them based on their own personal assumptions and subjectivity. It is for this reason that Iran has not had much of a practical experience from the existence of these concepts and achieving such and experience needs more time. Understanding the opinions of Akhond Khorasani (the revolution’s leader) vis-à-vis these concepts can be an indication of the formation of democracy’s pillar in Iran and also an indication of how the clergy faced these concepts, understand them and what practical ways they used to realize them. The theoretical framework of this article is based on the modernity theory. In essence, modernity comprises the theoretical aspects of the entire social, political, economical and cultural issues and guide human societies through the passageway of tradition to the modern world. The methodology used in this study is the unobtrusive research methodology, since this is a qualitative and historical research. The content analysis method which is one of the methods used in qualitative and historical researchers has also been implemented in this research

An Improved Approach for Output Feedback Model Predictive Control of Hybrid Systems

In this paper, a modified robust model predictive control scheme is proposed for linear parametric variable (LPV) and hybrid systems based on a quasi-min-max algorithm. Using a new cost function resulted in reduced unwanted disturbances during switching. In addition, the effects of uncertainties are reduced in the prediction dynamics, and robust stability of piecewise switching LPV systems subjected to linear matrix inequality (LMI) input constraints are guaranteed. Simulation results demonstrate the performance of the proposed controller compared to prior research

Position Control of the Single Spherical Wheel Mobile Robot by Using the Fuzzy Sliding Mode Controller

A spherical wheel robot or Ballbot—a robot that balances on an actuated spherical ball—is a new and recent type of robot in the popular area of mobile robotics. This paper focuses on the modeling and control of such a robot. We apply the Lagrangian method to derive the governing dynamic equations of the system. We also describe a novel Fuzzy Sliding Mode Controller (FSMC) implemented to control a spherical wheel mobile robot. The nonlinear nature of the equations makes the controller nontrivial. We compare the performance of four different fuzzy controllers: (a) regulation with one signal, (b) regulation and position control with one signal, (c) regulation and position control with two signals, and (d) FSMC for regulation and position control with two signals. The system is evaluated in a realistic simulation and the robot parameters are chosen based on a LEGO platform, so the designed controllers have the ability to be implemented on real hardware

Association of catechol-o-methyl transferase gene polymorphism with prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia

Abstract BACKGROUND: A single nucleotide variation within catechol-o-methyl transferase (COMT) gene may alter the COMT enzyme activity level. Polymorphism of Val158Met in the COMT gene has been related to malignancy. In this regard, a study was carried out to find a possible association between the COMT gene polymorphism in patients with sporadic prostate cancer (PCa) and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH)