Agricultural Producer Support Policy in Iran and Selected Countries

Agricultural policies in Iran have aimed at achieving self-sufficiency in food productions through the government various policies. The aim of this paper is to examine the current level of protection which may exist in agricultural sector in Iran and other countries. The results indicate that the PSE in Iran is much higher than the OECD and is close to Japanese and Korean PSE percentage (i.e. 58 and 64 percent). The broadest indicator of support representing the sum of transfers to agricultural producers (PSE), expenditure for general services (GSSE), and direct budgetary transfers to consumers, reached 83 billion Dollars per year in 2001-2005 which is almost equivalent to 13.4 percent of Iran’s GDP in this period. This is much higher than the OECD average and suggests a relatively high burden of agricultural support on Iran’s economy.Iran, Producers, Support Policy, PSE, GSSE, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q18,

Topology- and symmetry-protected domain wall conduction in quantum Hall nematics

We consider domain walls in nematic quantum Hall ferromagnets predicted to form in multivalley semiconductors, recently probed by scanning tunnelling microscopy experiments on Bi(111) surfaces. We show that the domain wall properties depend sensitively on the filling factor $\nu$ of the underlying (integer) quantum Hall states. For $\nu=1$ and in the absence of impurity scattering we argue that the wall hosts a single-channel Luttinger liquid whose gaplessness is a consequence of valley and charge conservation. For $\nu=2$, it supports a two-channel Luttinger liquid, which for sufficiently strong interactions enters a symmetry-preserving thermal metal phase with a charge gap coexisting with gapless neutral intervalley modes. The domain wall physics in this state is identical to that of a bosonic topological insulator protected by $U(1)\times U(1)$ symmetry, and we provide a formal mapping between these problems. We discuss other unusual properties and experimental signatures of these `anomalous' one-dimensional systems.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, published versio

Atom Transfer and Single-Adatom Contacts

The point contact of a tunnel tip approaching towards Ag(111) and Cu(111) surfaces is investigated with a low temperature scanning tunneling microscope. A sharp jump-to-contact, random in nature, is observed in the conductance. After point contact, the tip-apex atom is transferred to the surface, indicating that a one-atom contact is formed during the approach. In sharp contrast, the conductance over single silver and copper adatoms exhibits a smooth and reproducible transition from tunneling to contact regime. Numerical simulations show that this is a consequence of the additional dipolar bonding between the homoepitaxial adatom and the surface atoms.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

M-atom conductance oscillations of a metallic quantum wire

The electron transport through a monoatomic metallic wire connected to leads is investigated using the tight-binding Hamiltonian and Green's function technique. Analytical formulas for the transmittance are derived and M-atom oscillations of the conductance versus the length of the wire are found. Maxima of the transmittance function versus the energy, for the wire consisted of N atoms, determine the (N+1) period of the conductance. The periods of conductance oscillations are discussed and the local and average quantum wire charges are presented. The average charge of the wire is linked with the period of the conductance oscillations and it tends to the constant value as the length of the wire increases. For M-atom periodicity there are possible (M-1) average occupations of the wire states.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. J.Phys.: Condens. matter (2005) accepte

رفتارهای نامحترمانه در محیط کار پرستاران: یک مطالعه کیفی Uncivil Behaviors in Nursing Workplace: A Qualitative Study

مقدمه: رفتارهای نامحترمانه در محیط‌های بالینی تهدید آمیز می‌باشند و منجر به خطر انداختن سلامت پرستاران و بیماران در محیط‌های بالینی و درمانی می‌گردد. نتایج نامطلوب آن با عدم رضایت شغلی و ترک محل کار همراه است. این مطالعه با هدف تبیین رفتارهای نامحترمانه در محیط کار پرستاران انجام شده است روش کار: در این مطالعه کیفی پنجاه نفر از پرستاران شاغل در مرکز آموزشی درمانی تحت پوشش دانشگاه علوم پزشکی گلستان با روش نمونه گیری مبتنی بر هدف و با حداکثر تنوع مورد بررسی قرار گرفتند. داده‌ها از طریق مصاحبه‌های نیمه ساختار تا رسیدن به اشباع داده‌ها جمع آوری و با رویکرد تحلیل محتوای کیفی مرسوم تحلیل شدند یافته‌ها: 80 درصد مشارکت کنندگان زن، با سابقه کار 3 تا 20 سال بوده‌اند. رفتار نامحترمانه با مفاهیم "حقارت"، "پرخاشگری کلامی- غیر کلامی"، "تهدید"، "سرزنش شدن"، "نادیده گرفتن توانمندی‌ها"، "مشارکت داده نشدن"، در تعامل با همکاران، مافوق، پزشک، بیماران، همراهان، کادر خدماتی همراه بوده است. مشارکت کنندگان رفتار نامحترمانه از همراهان را در طیفی از خفیف تا شدید تجربه کردند و آن را بسیار تنش زا می‌دانستند در حالی که توهین از جانب بیمار را کمتر شخصی می‌پندارند و به دلیل وضعیت سلامتی و استرس بیمار آن را بهتر تحمل می‌کنند. مشارکت کنندگان همواره بهترین راه مقابله برای پاسخ به رفتار نامحترمانه را نمی‌دانستند، با مسبب رفتار توهین آمیز مقابله‌ای نمی‌کردند یا آن رفتار را گزارش نمی‌کردند نتیجه گیری: یافته‌ها نشان داد رفتارهای نامحترمانه به درجات و در ابعاد مختلف در محیط کاری پرستاران رخ می‌دهد و تداوم چنین رفتارها و احساس عدم وجود منابع حمایتی می‌تواند سبب سبب یاس از حرفه کاری و استرس گرد

Reflective self-awareness exercise; steps towards changing students’ attitudes towards disability

The aim of this study was to explore the changes in students attitudes regarding disability after attending the module ‘Disability: theories, nature and experiences’ designed around reflective self-awareness exercises. Literature indicates enhanced knowledge does not automatically lead to changes in attitude. Health care professionals are the most significant people to instil hope in their clients to pursue a happy life. As advocates for people with disability, health care professionals need themselves to believe that people with disability can pursue a happy life as abled bodied people do. Researchers aimed to explore the impact of the ‘Disability’ module using discussion and reflective exercises, on students’ way of thinking about and changes in attitude towards disability. Students were asked to write stories at the beginning and after completing the module. A thematic analysis was applied to identify the students’ way of communicating their thoughts and feelings about disable bodied /disability before and after the module. Three major themes were identified to represent the differences before and after attending the module: problem /solution oriented approach towards perceived problems, separating/ integrating disable/able bodied, passive/ active role of disable bodied and society

Transport Properties of Carbon Nanotube C60_{60} Peapods

We measure the conductance of carbon nanotube peapods from room temperature down to 250mK. Our devices show both metallic and semiconducting behavior at room temperature. At the lowest temperatures, we observe single electron effects. Our results suggest that the encapsulated C$_{60}$ molecules do not introduce substantial backscattering for electrons near the Fermi level. This is remarkable given that previous tunneling spectroscopy measurements show that encapsulated C$_{60}$ strongly modifies the electronic structure of a nanotube away from the Fermi level.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures. This is one of two manuscripts replacing the one orginally submitted as arXiv:cond-mat/0606258. The other one is arXiv:0704.3641 [cond-mat

Effects of COVID-19 lockdown on heart rate variability.

Strict lockdown rules were imposed to the French population from 17 March to 11 May 2020, which may result in limited possibilities of physical activity, modified psychological and health states. This report is focused on HRV parameters kinetics before, during and after this lockdown period. 95 participants were included in this study (27 women, 68 men, 37 ± 11 years, 176 ± 8 cm, 71 ± 12 kg), who underwent regular orthostatic tests (a 5-minute supine followed by a 5-minute standing recording of heart rate (HR)) on a regular basis before (BSL), during (CFN) and after (RCV) the lockdown. HR, power in low- and high-frequency bands (LF, HF, respectively) and root mean square of the successive differences (RMSSD) were computed for each orthostatic test, and for each position. Subjective well-being was assessed on a 0-10 visual analogic scale (VAS). The participants were split in two groups, those who reported an improved well-being (WB+, increase >2 in VAS score) and those who did not (WB-) during CFN. Out of the 95 participants, 19 were classified WB+ and 76 WB-. There was an increase in HR and a decrease in RMSSD when measured supine in CFN and RCV, compared to BSL in WB-, whilst opposite results were found in WB+ (i.e. decrease in HR and increase in RMSSD in CFN and RCV; increase in LF and HF in RCV). When pooling data of the three phases, there were significant correlations between VAS and HR, RMSSD, HF, respectively, in the supine position; the higher the VAS score (i.e., subjective well-being), the higher the RMSSD and HF and the lower the HR. In standing position, HRV parameters were not modified during CFN but RMSSD was correlated to VAS. Our results suggest that the strict COVID-19 lockdown likely had opposite effects on French population as 20% of participants improved parasympathetic activation (RMSSD, HF) and rated positively this period, whilst 80% showed altered responses and deteriorated well-being. The changes in HRV parameters during and after the lockdown period were in line with subjective well-being responses. The observed recordings may reflect a large variety of responses (anxiety, anticipatory stress, change on physical activity…) beyond the scope of the present study. However, these results confirmed the usefulness of HRV as a non-invasive means for monitoring well-being and health in this population