The Prospects for Democracy in Iran

Streaming video requires RealPlayer to view.The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.Why did Iran's pro-democracy movement fail? Mark Gasiorowski, director of the International Studies Program at Louisiana State University, argues the movement failed because its leaders opted to pursue incremental, gradual change from within rather than directly confronting the Islamic regime.Ohio State University. Mershon Center for International Security StudiesEvent webpage, streaming video, photos, lecture summar

Individual and group dynamic behaviour patterns in bound spaces

The behaviour analysis of individual and group dynamics in closed spaces is a subject of extensive research in both academia and industry. However, despite recent technological advancements the problem of implementing the existing methods for visual behaviour data analysis in production systems remains difficult and the applications are available only in special cases in which the resourcing is not a problem. Most of the approaches concentrate on direct extraction and classification of the visual features from the video footage for recognising the dynamic behaviour directly from the source. The adoption of such an approach allows recognising directly the elementary actions of moving objects, which is a difficult task on its own. The major factor that impacts the performance of the methods for video analytics is the necessity to combine processing of enormous volume of video data with complex analysis of this data using and computationally resourcedemanding analytical algorithms. This is not feasible for many applications, which must work in real time. In this research, an alternative simulation-based approach for behaviour analysis has been adopted. It can potentially reduce the requirements for extracting information from real video footage for the purpose of the analysis of the dynamic behaviour. This can be achieved by combining only limited data extracted from the original video footage with a symbolic data about the events registered on the scene, which is generated by 3D simulation synchronized with the original footage. Additionally, through incorporating some physical laws and the logics of dynamic behaviour directly in the 3D model of the visual scene, this framework allows to capture the behavioural patterns using simple syntactic pattern recognition methods. The extensive experiments with the prototype implementation prove in a convincing manner that the 3D simulation generates sufficiently rich data to allow analysing the dynamic behaviour in real-time with sufficient adequacy without the need to use precise physical data, using only a limited data about the objects on the scene, their location and dynamic characteristics. This research can have a wide applicability in different areas where the video analytics is necessary, ranging from public safety and video surveillance to marketing research to computer games and animation. Its limitations are linked to the dependence on some preliminary processing of the video footage which is still less detailed and computationally demanding than the methods which use directly the video frames of the original footage

PHOSPHATE ADSORPTION AND DESORPTION ON TWO CONTRASTING SOILS USED FOR LAND TREATMENT OF WASTEWATER

Land treatment of wastewater involves the use of plants and the soil to remove unwanted constituents. Removal of phosphorus is particularly important to avoid excessive biological activity in water systems receiving the treated wastewater. This research examines the phosphate adsorption - desorption behavior of two soils: Charlton silt loam, a typical acid soil from New England which is being used in experimental wastewater treatment, and Tujunga coarse sandy loam from a wastewater land treatment facility located at Manteca, California, which has failed to remove phosphate from wastewater efficiently. The effects of changing the pH and phosphate content of municipal wastewater on adsorption and desorption were determined. Sorption isotherms were determined for each soil using wastewater as the equilibration solution. Phosphate was added to the wastewater to obtain the concentration range necessary for the isotherms. After 96 hour equilibration periods, radioactive phosphorus was added to the suspensions. Measurements of the redistribution of the P-32 were used to determine the exchangeability of the sorbed phosphate. Radioactive phosphorus-32 was used to follow the adsorption and desorption rates in suspensions of soil and wastewater. Parallel experiments were conducted in which phosphate concentrations were determined by conventional spectrophotometric analysis. Effluent from a conventional secondary treatment facility and the whole soil (all particles \u3c 2 mm) were used in these studies to model the normal situation in land treatment facilities. Concentration changes of solution phosphate or P-32 were measured over 46 hour equilibration periods. After this period, soil samples were separated from the suspension, treated to remove interstitial solution, and dried at room temperature. The dried soil samples were resuspended with either a fresh portion of effluent or 0.005 M NaCl solution. Resuspension with effluent mimics a repeat application of wastewater to a treatment field. Suspension in sodium chloride solution allows determination of phosphate desorption in the absence of exchange reactions. The complementary use of P-32 and non-radioactive phosphate permitted the evaluation of adsorption and desorption of freshly sorbed and native phosphate independently as well as the amount of exchange occurring. Charlton soil sorbed large amounts of phosphate with a capacity of over 1000 mg P/g soil. At concentrations typical of wastewater, complete removal of phosphate from solution was rapid. When small amounts (\u3c 100 mg/g) were sorbed, phosphate was bound in very stable forms which were largely unavailable to exchange. Sorption was slightly less complete in suspensions at pH 8.0 as compared to pH 5.0 and 6.5. At higher loadings of phosphate, an increasing amount of exchangeable phosphate was sorbed on the Charlton soil. However, at a single pH, the proportion of exchangeable phosphate to sorbed phosphate was constant at all amounts of sorbed P studied. Tujunga soil capacity for phosphate was much lower than Charlton soil. Sorbed phosphate was susceptible to a large amount to exchange as well as net desorption. Efficiency of sorption decreased with a decrease in pH--opposite to the trend observed with the Charlton soil. A three step mechanism of P sorption was used to explain the results of these studies. Determination of relative concentrations of Fe (II) and Fe (III) by Mossbauer spectroscopy was examined. Mossbauer spectra were obtained which demonstrate the successful application of the technique to the study of reduced iron in soils

Week 96 efficacy and safety results of the phase 3, randomized EMERALD trial to evaluate switching from boosted-protease inhibitors plus emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate regimens to the once daily, single-tablet regimen of darunavir/cobicistat/emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide (D/C/F/TAF) in treatment-experienced, virologically-suppressed adults living with HIV-1

Darunavir/cobicistat/emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide (D/C/F/TAF) 800/150/200/10 mg was investigated through 96 weeks in EMERALD (NCT02269917). Virologically-suppressed, HIV-1-positive treatment-experienced adults (previous non-darunavir virologic failure [VF] allowed) were randomized (2:1) to D/C/F/TAF or boosted protease inhibitor (PI) plus emtricitabine/tenofovir-disoproxil-fumarate (F/TDF) over 48 weeks. At week 52 participants in the boosted PI arm were offered switch to D/C/F/TAF (late-switch, 44 weeks D/C/F/TAF exposure). All participants were followed on D/C/F/TAF until week 96. Efficacy endpoints were percentage cumulative protocol-defined virologic rebound (PDVR; confirmed viral load [VL] >= 50 copies/mL) and VL = 50 copies/mL (VF) (FDA-snapshot analysis). Of 1141 randomized patients, 1080 continued in the extension phase. Few patients had PDVR (D/C/F/TAF: 3.1%, 24/763 cumulative through week 96; late-switch: 2.3%, 8/352 week 52-96). Week 96 virologic suppression was 90.7% (692/763) (D/C/F/TAF) and 93.8% (330/352) (late-switch). VF was 1.2% and 1.7%, respectively. No darunavir, primary PI, tenofovir or emtricitabine resistance-associated mutations were observed post-baseline. No patients discontinued for efficacy-related reasons. Few discontinued due to adverse events (2% D/C/F/TAF arm). Improved renal and bone parameters were maintained in the D/C/F/TAF arm and observed in the late-switch arm, with small increases in total cholesterol/high-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol ratio. A study limitation was the lack of a control arm in the week 96 analysis. Through 96 weeks, D/C/F/TAF resulted in low PDVR rates, high virologic suppression rates, very few VFs, and no resistance development. Late-switch results were consistent with D/C/F/TAF week 48 results. EMERALD week 96 results confirm the efficacy, high genetic barrier to resistance and safety benefits of D/C/F/TAF

Hox gene expression in postmetamorphic juveniles of the brachiopod Terebratalia transversa

Background: Hox genes encode a family of homeodomain containing transcription factors that are clustered together on chromosomes of many Bilateria. Some bilaterian lineages express these genes during embryogenesis in spatial and/or temporal order according to their arrangement in the cluster, a phenomenon referred to as collinearity. Expression of Hox genes is well studied during embryonic and larval development of numerous species; however, relatively few studies focus on the comparison of pre- and postmetamorphic expression of Hox genes in animals with biphasic life cycle. Recently, the expression of Hox genes was described for embryos and larvae of Terebratalia transversa, a rhynchonelliformean brachiopod, which possesses distinct metamorphosis from planktonic larvae to sessile juveniles. During premetamorphic development, T. transversa does not exhibit spatial collinearity and several of its Hox genes are recruited for the morphogenesis of novel structures. In our study, we determined the expression of Hox genes in postmetamorphic juveniles of T. transversa in order to examine metamorphosis-related changes of expression patterns and to test whether Hox genes are expressed in the spatially collinear way in the postmetamorphic juveniles. Results: Hox genes are expressed in a spatially non-collinear manner in juveniles, generally showing similar patterns as ones observed in competent larvae: genes labial and post1 are expressed in chaetae-related structures, sex combs reduced in the shell-forming epithelium, whereas lox5 and lox4 in dorso-posterior epidermis. After metamorphosis, expression of genes proboscipedia, hox3, deformed and antennapedia becomes restricted to, respectively, shell musculature, prospective hinge rudiments and pedicle musculature and epidermis. Conclusions: All developmental stages of T. transversa, including postmetamorphic juveniles, exhibit a spatial non-collinear Hox genes expression with only minor changes observed between pre- and postmetamorphic stages. Our results are concordant with morphological observation that metamorphosis in rhynchonelliformean brachiopods, despite being rapid, is rather gradual. The most drastic changes in Hox gene expression patterns observed during metamorphosis could be explained by the inversion of the mantle lobe, which relocates some of the more posterior larval structures into the anterior edge of the juveniles. Co-option of Hox genes for the morphogenesis of novel structures is even more pronounced in postmetamorphic brachiopods when compared to larvae.publishedVersio

Digital Signal Processing for Hydroacoustic System in Biomimetic Underwater Vehicle

Signal processing in hydroacoustic system will be presented in this paper. The research results, depicted in this article, were achieved during realization one of the stages of the project for the development of an biomimetic underwater vehicle (BUV). The hydroacoustic system is installed inside Biomimetic Underwater Vehicle no. 2 (BUV2) and is designed for passive obstacle detection system. The passive measurement system was based on two hydrophones mounted on the upper part of the BUV2. The results of the hydroacoustic module testing were made in a real environment. The signals from the hydrophones were converted from analog to digital form and then filtered and analyzed by using algorithms implemented in the Texas Instruments C2000 series microcontroller

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Organic solar cells: study of combined effects of active layer nanostructure and electron and hole transport layers

An organic solar cell based on Poly (3-hexathiophine-2,5-diyl) and [6,6]-Phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester has been subjected to all layers treatment and was investigated for combined effects of the these layers on device performance. These treatment included optimization of active layer morphology and thickness and improving the structure of the hole and electron transport layers, as well as subjecting the full device to optimum post deposition thermal treatment. Such a device has shown an increase in the optical absorption intensity in the near infrared region compared to the reference device, which is thought to be advantageous for producing high current density. The increase in the current density has also been correlated with light trapping within the active layer and the possibility of the occurrence of total internal reflection, which was explained using total internal reflection spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements. The current density-voltage characteristics have been measured in dark and under illumination. Power conversion efficiency as high as 7% has been achieved correlated with a fill factor of 71%