*** Please note: The deadline for this application has been extended to May 15, 2017.
The Iranian-American Academics and Professionals (IAAP) is now accepting online student scholarship applications for 2017. All applications must be submitted by 8 pm EST on May 15, 2017. Please click here to access the application.
– IAAP Student Scholarship Committee
Synopsis:
The interesting dynamics of vehicular traffic has gained both engineers and physicists attention for decades. While traffic engineering has been very successful in predicting or even controlling the traffic in a given situation based on empirical data, physicists approach is usually quite different. Physicist are mostly interested in modeling traffic in order to describe the general features of typical traffic. Developing models not only can provide an understanding towards the complexity of the traffic phenomena, but also may help to extract the fundamental aspects of traffic and use them to predict and control the real traffic state.
The flow of traffic represents a many-particle non-equilibrium problem with important practical consequences. Traffic flow shows well defined collective behavior where the free flow of traffic at low density changes abruptly with growing density to a denser phase with jams. The jams themselves show organized motions with start-stop waves as the cars creep forward. In addition to free flow and jam phases, there are also instances of synchronized flow at low velocity. Understanding the collective dynamical behavior and controlling the jams will give insight into effective traffic management.
About the Speaker:
Ashkan Balouchi is a Data Scientist at LifeNome, a revolutionary personal genomics company with the aim of revolutionizing how individuals make well-being decision. He received his PhD in physics from Louisiana State University on feedback control analyses on complex dynamical systems. He focused on modeling the traffic phenomenon using theoretical physics and strong numerical simulations to understand the underlying features of the traffic jams. He was also a member of Hearne Institute for Theoretical Physics. Before moving to the US in 2010, He received his MSc. and BSc. from Sharif University of Technology, during which he trained more than 20 international physics Olympiad medal winners.
For this lecture: light refreshment will be provided
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Synopsis:
The cause of autoimmune diseases is complex and multifactorial: genetic, environmental, hormonal, and immunologic factors are all considered important in their development. The world’s increasing incidence and prevalence of autoimmune diseases over the past 30 years suggests that environmental risk factors are playing a major role. Chronic psychological stress has been implicated in the development of autoimmune disease, but what does this mean in practical terms? We will explore the nature of short-term and chronic stress and their protective and pathologic impacts on immune function. Based on the available scientific literature, we will discuss what steps may be taken on an individual and societal level to potentially prevent autoimmune disease and, ultimately, enhance overall well-being.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Yousef Zarbalian is a board-certified rheumatologist and internist. He obtained his medical doctorate (M.D.) from Washington University in St. Louis. He completed internal medicine residency at the University of Maryland followed by rheumatology fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He has done research on vasculitis (Giant cell arteritis) and presented his research at the 2016 American College of Rheumatology conference. Dr. Zarbalian started clinical practice at the Northern Virginia Center for Arthritis in August 2016 and he takes care of patients with autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, vasculitis, lupus, and sjogren’s syndrome.
For this lecture: light refreshment will be provided
Please click here to RSVP.
