Iran or Persia : what's in a name, the decline and fall of a tourism industry?

The future of tourism in Iran depends on the tenor of the government, whether it be Islamic traditionalist or Islamic liberalist. In Iran religion and politics are inescapably intertwined and inseparable, with the priority of religion over politics. This is highlighted in the changing emphasis of the UNESCO list where cultural heritage is being reshaped according to religious and political ideology. President Jimmy Carter, during a State dinner in Tehran in late December 1977, described Iran 'an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world'; this serves as a salient warning to those tempted to make predictions about the future of Iran. Anti -Israeli rhetoric, holocaust denial, uncertain nuclear aims and ambitions, pollution, traffic, false imprisonment, hangings and stoning all serve to undermine the attractiveness of Iran as a destination

Tourism in Iran: central control and indigeneity

Iran has a long history and tradition of accommodating visitors and travellers, as well as having a great number of minority cultures within its borders, reflecting its geographic location astride some of the major trade routes in the Middle East. Despite what could be seen as great advantages in the competition for tourism, the present powers in Iran have downplayed the potential role of indigenous groups in tourism, just as they have downplayed the role that tourism could have in the country at large. By exercising strong central and religious power and control and putting forward a strong national image, Iran has discouraged tourism development among its indigenous communities. The dominant centralised power structure of the country is in sharp contrast to that in Nepal for example, described in the previous section, and community-based tourism is hard to find, although there are examples of good individual operations, normally at a small scale. Iran symbolises, perhaps, the dominance of a central uniform control over tourism compared to a local indigenous variety of developments

Design of a Multiple Component Geometric Breast Phantom

The quality and realism of simulated images is currently limited by the quality of the digital phantoms used for the simulations. The transition from simple raster based phantoms to more detailed geometric (mesh) based phantoms has the potential to increase the usefulness of the simulated data. A preliminary breast phantom which contains 12 distinct tissue classes along with the tissue properties necessary for the simulation of dynamic positron emission tomography scans was created (activity and attenuation). The phantom contains multiple components which can be separately manipulated, utilizing geometric transformations, to represent populations or a single individual being imaged in multiple positions. A new relational descriptive language is presented which conveys the relationships between individual mesh components. This language, which defines how the individual mesh components are composed into the phantom, aids in phantom development by enabling the addition and removal of components without modification of the other components, and simplifying the definition of complex interfaces. Results obtained when testing the phantom using the SimSET PET/SPECT simulator are very encouraging

Ignition and subsequent transition to flame spread in a microgravity environment

The fire safety strategy in a spacecraft is (1) to detect any fire as early as possible, (2) to keep any fire as small as possible, and (3) to extinguish any fire as quickly as possible. This suggests that a material which undergoes a momentary, localized ignition might be tolerable but a material which permits a transition to flame spread would significantly increase the fire hazard. Therefore, it is important to understand how the transition from localized ignition to flame spread occurs and what parameters significantly affect the transition. The fundamental processes involved in ignition and flame spread have been extensively studied, but they have been studied separately. Some of the steady state flame models start from ignition to reach a steady state, but since the objective of such a calculation is to obtain the steady state flame spread rate, the calculation through the transition process is made without high accuracy to save computational time. We have studied the transition from a small localized ignition at the center of a thermally thin paper in a microgravity environment. The configuration for that study was axisymmetric, but more general versions of the numerical scheme have been developed by including the effects of a slow, external flow in both two and three dimensions. By exploiting the non-buoyant nature of the flow, it is possible to achieve resolution of fractions of millimeters for 3D flow domains on the order of 10 centimeters. Because the calculations are time dependent, we can study the evolution of multiple flame fronts originating from a localized ignition source. The interaction of these fronts determines whether or not they will eventually achieve steady state spread. Most flame spread studies in microgravity consider two-dimensional flame spread initiated by ignition at one end of a sample strip with or against a slow external flow. In this configuration there is only one flame front. A more realistic scenario involves separate, oppositely directed fronts in two dimensions, or a continuous, radially directed front in three dimensions. We present here some results of both the two and three dimensional codes

Spare me the details: How the type of information about automated interviews influences applicant reactions

Applicants seem to react negatively to artificial intelligence-based automated systems in personnel selection. This study investigates the impact of different pieces of information to alleviate applicant reactions in an automated interview setting. In a 2 (no process information vs. process information) × 2 (no process justification vs. process justification) between-subjects design, participants (N = 124) received respective information and watched a video showing an automated interview. Testing mediation effects via different applicant reaction variables indicated that process justification is better than process information which can even impair applicant reactions. However, information did not increase organizational attractiveness compared to not receiving any information. This study sheds light on what type of information contributes to positive and negative applicant reactions to automated systems