Plasmonic and nanophotonics sensors from visible to terahertz

Theory of surface plasmon sensors -- Electromagnetic theory of surface plasmons -- Excitation of surface plasmons -- Methodology -- Design criteria for microstructured-optical-fiber-based surface-plasmon-resonance sensors -- Geometry of a MOF-based SPR sensor -- Excitation of plasmonic waves by the core guided mode of a MOF -- Tuning of plasmonic excitations -- Sensitivities of the MOF-based SPR sensors -- Photonic crystal fiber and waveguide-based surface plasmon resonance sensors for application in the visible and NEAR-IR -- SPR sensors using planar photonic crystal waveguides -- SPR sensors using photonic crystal Bragg fibers -- SPR sensors using microstructured photonic crystal fibers -- Porous polymer fibers for low-loss terahertz guiding -- Porous fibers with multiple sub-wavelength holes -- Porous photonic bandgap Bragg fibers with a network of bridges -- Surface-plasmon-resonance-like fiber-based sensor at terahertz frequencies -- THz plasmon-like excitations -- Sensitivity of a THz SPR-like sensor -- Surface plasmon resonance-like integrated sensor at terahertz frequencies for gaseous analytes -- TH plasmon-like excitation at the PVDF/air interface -- Sensitivity of an SPR-like THz sensor -- Overall discussion and conclusion

Censorship of poetry in post-revolutionary Iran (1979 to 2014), growing up with censorship (a memoir), and the kindly interrogator (a collection of poetry)

PhD ThesisThe thesis comprises a dissertation, a linking piece and a collection of poems. The dissertation is an analysis of state-imposed censorship in Iranian poetry from 1979 through 2014. It investigates the state's rationale for censorship, its mechanism and its effects in order to show how censorship has influenced the trends in poetry and the creativity of poets during the period studied. The introduction outlines attitudes towards censorship in three different categories: Firstly, censorship as "good and necessary", then censorship as "fundamentally wrong yet harmless or even beneficial to poetry", and lastly, censorship as a force that is always destructive and damages poetry. Chapter one investigates the relevant laws, theories and cultural policies in order to identify the underlying causes for censorship of poetry. Chapter two looks at the structure and mechanism of the censorship apparatus and examines the role of cultural organizations as well as judicial and security forces in enforcing censorship. Chapter three contemplates and explores the reaction of Iranian poets to censorship and different strategies and techniques they adopt to protest, challenge and circumvent censorship. Chapter four analyses the outcome of the relationship between the censorship apparatus and the poets, providing a clear picture of how censorship defines, shapes and presents the poetry produced and published in Iran. Chapter five compares the type of censorship in Iran with two historical cases of Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Bloc to conclude that every censorship regime has particular characteristics and affects creativity in a unique way. It revisits the previous arguments in light of findings of the research and concludes that censorship in Iran has highly influenced the contemporary Iranian poetry, and that it leaves a lasting effect on creativity of the Iranian poets. Growing up with Censorship is a self-reflective memoir which chronicles the author’s personal encounters with censorship both as a reader and a writer from 1979 to 2014. It links the dissertation to the poems and provides an intimate narrative of the role censorship has played in shaping the author’s poetic life and his poetry. The Kindly Interrogator is a portfolio of 57 poems concerned with the themes of censorship, surveillance and persecution

The effect of black and green-tea extracts on dental-plaque forming Streptococci

زمینه و هدف: چای از پرمصرف‌ترین نوشیدنی‌ها در ایران است. اثرات ضد میکربی چای روی میکروارگانیسم‌های متعددی به اثبات رسیده است و یافتن فرآورده های طبیعی مانند مشتقات چای، که فاقد مخاطرات بر سلامت انسان باشند جهت کاهش ارگانیسم های پاتوژن ضروری بنظر می رسد. لذا این پژوهش با هدف بررسی اثر عصاره چای سیاه و سبز ایرانی بر استرپتوکوک‌های دهانی (استرپتوکوکوس موتانس، استرپتوکوکوس میتیس و استرپتوکوکوس سنگوییس) و اثر بازدارندگی آنها از تشکیل بیوفیلم، روی عوامل ایجاد کنندۀ پلاک‌های دندانی و پوسیدگی دندان انجام شد. روش بررسی: در این مطالعه تجربی پس از عصاره گیری نمونه ها با حلال متانول50 و جدا نمودن مجدد در فاز اتیل استـــات، عصاره ها توسط فیلتر 44/0 میکرون استریل شده و در 4 درجۀ سانتیگراد نگهداری شدند. از روش تهیۀ رقت های متوالی در محیط مایع برای محاسبۀ حداقل غلظت بازدارندگی و با تلقیح باکتری‌ها به درون ارلن های حاوی لام‌های شیشه‌ای برای سنجش تشکیل بیوفیلم استفاده شد. تشکیل بیوفیلم با کشت نمونه از روی لام ها و شمارش کلنی‌ها و همچنین مقایسۀ آنها در زیر میکروسکوپ فاز کنتراست با نمونۀ شاهد (محیط های تیمار نشده) مقایسه گردید. میانگین اندازه گیری‌ها در سه بار تکرار بیان و خطاها در هر نمونه با استفاده از آزمون آماری استاندارد (ANOVA) تعیین گردید. یافته ها: میکروسکوپ فاز کنتراست کاهش فوق العاده ای را در چسبیدن میکروارگانیسم های تیمار شده به یکدیگر در مقایسه با نمونۀ شاهد نشان داد. در غلظت 1 میلی گرم در میلی لیتر از عصارۀ چای سیاه بیوفیلم تشکیل نشد و غلظت 5/1 میلی گرم در میلی لیتر از عصارۀ چای سبز نیز بازدارندۀ کامل تشکیل بیوفیلم بود. عصاره های چای سیاه و سبز، به ترتیب در غلظت 5/2 و 3 میلی گرم در میلی لیتر اثر باکتریسایدی روی استرپتوکوکوس موتانس، استرپتوکوکوس میتیس و استرپتوکوکوس سنگوییس داشتند. نتیجه گیری: عصاره های چای به هر دو صورت چای سیاه و سبز خاصیت باکتریسایدی داشتند و اثر ضد میکربی چای سیاه بر روی استرپتوکوک های دهانی و ممانعت از تشکیل بیوفیلم توسط آنها بیشتر از چای سبز است

Effect of Chemical and Biological Phosphorus on the Yield of Summer Savory (Satureja hortensis L.)

To survey the effects of chemical and biological phosphorus on the yield and essential oil of Satureja hortensis L. as an important medicinal plant, factorial experiment was conducted based on randomized complete block design with three replicates at Research Station of Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University in 2011. The treatments were chemical phosphorus fertilizer with four levels (0, 50, 100 and 150 kg/ha P as triple supper phosphate) and biological phosphorus fertilizer with four levels (0, 100, 200 and 300 g/ha Pseudomonas putida Strain P13 and Bacillus lentus Strain P5). The results of ANOVA showed the significant interaction effect between chemical and biological phosphorus on the yield of fresh weight, biological yield, stem dry weight, and the yield of drug and essential oil. There was non-significant effect of chemical and biological phosphorus on the essential oil percent, harvest index of drug and harvest index of essential oil. The highest amounts of total fresh weight (23327 kg/ha), biological yield (5282 kg/ha), stem dry weight (2523 kg/ha) and yield of drug (2759 kg/ha) and essential oil (79 kg/ha) were obtained from 200 g/ha of biological phosphorus without chemical fertilizer. The minimum amounts of total fresh weight, biological yield, stem dry weight, the yield of drug and essential oil were observed in higher than 200 g/ha of biological phosphorus

Allelopathy of sage and white wormwood on purslane germination and seedling growth.

A bioassay run was carried out in the incubator to evaluate possible allelopathic effects of water extracts of sage and white wormwood on germination and seedling growth of purslane. Results showed that the type of extract and its concentration (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20%) significantly influenced final germination percentage, germination rate and index, root and shoot length, root/shoot ratio, fresh and dry weight of seedling of purslane. The interaction between these two experimental factors was always significant, producing different results according to the different combination levels. The statistical comparison of means indicated that the maximum germination percentage and germination rate (respectively 68% and 11.4% d-1) were obtained from the untreated control (0% extract), while the lowest values for the same two characters occurred with 15% of sage (respectively 45% and 6.4% d-1) and 20% of white wormwood (38% and 7.5% d-1). Concerning germination indexes, the highest (55) and the lowest (32) values were observed respectively on the control and with 15% of sage extract or 20% of white wormwood extract. The longest (4.5 cm) and the shortest (1.3 cm) root of purslane were obtained with 5% of white wormwood and 20% of sage extracts, respectively. Changes in shoot length with sage and white wormwood extracts were similar to those in root length, even though shoot length was less affected by the concentration of extracts. Root and shoot length changes brought to maximum (22.0) and minimum (8.9) values for the root/shoot length ratio, respectively with 5% of white wormwood and 20% of sage extracts. The maximum fresh (2.111 g) and dry (0.338 g) seedling weight of purslane were obtained from untreated control, producing the same seedling weight with 5% of sage, 5 and 10% of white wormwood extract. While the minimum fresh (0.692 g) and dry (0.111 g) seedling weight were obtained from 15% of white wormwood extract, so that there is no significant differences between this value and the seedling weight produced under 10, 15 and 20% of sage and 20% of white wormwood extract

Dehydroepiandrosterone Stimulates Nerve Growth Factor and Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor in Cortical Neurons

Due to the increasing cases of neurodegenerative diseases in recent years, the eventual goal of nerve repair is very important. One approach for achieving a neuronal cell induction is by regenerative pharmacology. Nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) are neurotrophins that play roles in neuronal development, differentiation, and protection. On the other hand, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is a neurosteroid which has multiple actions in the nervous system. DHEA could be an important agent in regenerative pharmacology for neuronal differentiation during tissue regeneration. In this study, we investigated the possible role of DHEA to modulate NGF and BDNF production. The in vivo level of neurotrophins expression was demonstrated by ELISA in rat harvested brain cortex. Also neurotrophins expression after DHEA treatment was revealed by the increased neurite extension, immunostaining, and BrdU labeling in rats. Anti-NGF and anti-BDNF antibodies were used as suppressive agents on neurogenesis. The results showed that NGF and BDNF are overproduced after DHEA treatment but there is not any overexpression for NT-3 and NT-4. Also DHEA increased neurite extension and neural cell proliferation significantly. Overall, DHEA might induce NGF and BDNF neurotrophins overproduction in cortical neurons which promotes neural cell protection, survival, and proliferation. © 2013 Anahita Rahmani et al

Context Query Simulation for Smart Carparking Scenarios in the Melbourne CDB

The rapid growth in Internet of Things (IoT) has ushered in the way for better context-awareness enabling more smarter applications. Although for the growth in the number of IoT devices, Context Management Platforms (CMPs) that integrate different domains of IoT to produce context information lacks scalability to cater to a high volume of context queries. Research in scalability and adaptation in CMPs are of significant importance due to this reason. However, there is limited methods to benchmarks and validate research in this area due to the lack of sizable sets of context queries that could simulate real-world situations, scenarios, and scenes. Commercially collected context query logs are not publicly accessible and deploying IoT devices, and context consumers in the real-world at scale is expensive and consumes a significant effort and time. Therefore, there is a need to develop a method to reliably generate and simulate context query loads that resembles real-world scenarios to test CMPs for scale. In this paper, we propose a context query simulator for the context-aware smart car parking scenario in Melbourne Central Business District in Australia. We present the process of generating context queries using multiple real-world datasets and publicly accessible reports, followed by the context query execution process. The context query generator matches the popularity of places with the different profiles of commuters, preferences, and traffic variations to produce a dataset of context query templates containing 898,050 records. The simulator is executable over a seven-day profile which far exceeds the simulation time of any IoT system simulator. The context query generation process is also generic and context query language independent