Stringent Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary standards (SPS) have proliferated in the aftermath of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA). According to WTO rules, countries are allowed to adapt regulations under the SPS in order to protect human, animal and plant health as well as environment, wildlife and human safety. These standards are currently becoming a major stumbling block in agricultural trade for developing countries. Limited by inadequate resources and expertise, among other things, these countries also have poor participation rate in discussions related to SPS that impedes the representation of their interests and concerns in setting international standards for agricultural products. This paper estimates the trade effect of SPS regulations on the export of Shrimp in Iran. Our results suggest that these measures have a negative impact on the export of Shrimp from Iran. The demand for agricultural products is increasingly focusing on quality, packaging, labeling, and standards of products. Therefore, to increase shrimp export considering such measures are recommended.

First principle calculations were performed using Density functional theory within the local spin density approximation (LSDA) to understand the electronic properties of Au (100)+TBT system and compare the results with Au (100) and bulk Au properties. Band structure, the total DOS and charge density for these materials are calculated. We found that the HOMO for Au (100)+TBT becomes broader than Au (100) and bulk Au and d orbitals have the most contribution in covalent band. The electron densities overlap between Au atoms implies a large covalent bonding. Our calculations indicate that conjugated systems such as (TBT) enhance electric conductance.

Purpose: To compare the effect of religious fasting on basal tear secretion (BTS), tear break up time (TBT) and intraocular pressure (IOP) in Ramadan 2005.Methods: One-hundred fifty-six healthy male volunteers less than 40 years of age from Tehran, Zahedan, Ahvaz, Mashhad and Tabriz with no ocular and systemic disease participated in this study. Weight, urine specific gravity, BTS, TBT and IOP were measured at 8:00 AM one week before as well as at 8:00 AM and 5.00 PM in the third week of Ramadan.Results: Mean age of participants was 30±5.9 years. Duration of fasting was 12-13 hours. Mean TBT, BTS and IOP decreased by 1.8 second (P<0.0001), 2.1 mm (P<0.0001) and 0.5 mmHg (P<0.0001), respectively at 5:00 PM in the third week of Ramadan compared to 8:00 AM one week before Ramadan. IOP reduction was not clinically significant.Conclusion: Significant decrease in BTS and TBT was seen after three weeks of religions fasting.

Surface sediment samples were collected from Tanzanian major commercial ports and studied for the distribution and behavior of tributyltin (TBT) compounds and heavy metals. The content of TBT in sediments ranged from ND­3670 ng (Sn) g1 dry wt (1780 ± 1720) (Mean ± SD) at Zanzibar and from ND­16700 ng (Sn) g1 dry wt (4080 ± 7540) at Dar es Salaam ports, respectively. Maximum TBT levels were detected inside the both ports. Metabolic degradation of butyltin compounds (BTCs) showed that MBT + DBT > TBT %, this may be attributed by the warm ambient water and intense sunlight in the tropical regions. A sequential extraction procedure was undertaken to provide detailed chemical characteristics of heavy metals in the sediments. The procedure revealed that about 50 % of Fe in the both ports is in immobile fraction (residual fraction) while other metals; Cd, Cu, Ni, Co, Zn, Pb, and Mn were mostly found in exchangeable or carbonate fractions and thus can be easily remobilized and enter the aquatic food chain. This paper provides basic information of TBT compounds contamination and chemical characteristics of heavy metals in the marine ecosystem in Tanzania. To our knowledge, this is the first documentation of Organotin compounds (OTCs) in marine environments in East Africa and suggests the importance of further detailed OTCs studies in other sub­ Saharan Africa regions.

The Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement is one of the covered agreements of the World Trade Organization (WTO), one of the main objectives of which is to harmonize regulations in the area of technical barriers to trade. While under the TBT Agreement, governments can legitimately apply technical regulations and standards for the purpose of protecting public interest, including health and safety, this Agreement, establishes four basic principles including non-discrimination, prohibition of creating unnecessary obstacles to international trade, harmonization and transparency thereby balancing those interest with free flow of cross-border trade. The Purpose of this essay is to evaluates the Iranian regulatory landscape in light of these TBT provisions and the relevant provisions of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement. It demonstrates that Iranian legislator, with some exceptions, has substantially disregarded the concepts and principles of TBT Agreement. The same holds true with respect to the recently adopted law titled "Reinforcement and Development of Standard System Act” , enacted as of October 2017, leading to increase in trade costs and therefore undermining Iran’ s export competitiveness.

Background: Kidney transplant recipients need self-management during their lifetime, and training these patients is essential for the realization of self-management. Teach-back training (TBT) was used to receive, understand, and retain information. This study aimed to determine the effect of TBT on self-management in kidney transplant recipients. Methods: In this clinical trial study, 84 kidney transplant recipients who referred to the clinic of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Urmia (a city in northwest of Iran), from January to March 2017, were selected through convenience sampling and randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. In the intervention group, educational content was presented for each patient with TBT in 5 sessions of 60 minutes. Data were collected before and after the intervention by a special Self-Management Questionnaire for Kidney Transplant Recipients in five areas as follows: self-monitoring, self-care behavior in daily living, early detecting and coping with abnormalities after kidney transplantation, stress management and the category of non-categorized area. This is a valid and reliable questionnaire (α =0. 76). Collected data were analyzed by independent t-test and Mann-Whitney test. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 20 and P≤ 0. 05 was considered as significant. Results: Independent t-test showed that the mean of self-management score between the control and intervention groups was not statistically significant before the intervention (P=0. 90). The mean score of self-management increased after implementation of TBT in the intervention group compared to the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P=0. 001). Conclusion: The implementation of TBT method is effective in promoting self-management of kidney transplant recipients. Therefore, it is recommended that this method should be used to train the patients to better understand the components of self-management.

The goal of this paper is to use Sensitivity Analysis (SA) method to improve the performance of the system and to make the best decision of choosing the appropriate dimensions of the flexible link to optimize the system. In this paper the SA of the geometric parameters such as: length, thickness and width of a single link flexible manipulator on maximum deflection (MD) of the end effector and vibration energy (VE) of that point by using Sobol’s method are conducted. The full dynamic model of the system is developed based on Gibbs-Appel (G-A) formulation. In this paper, Timoshenko beam theory (TBT) and Euler-Bernoulli beam theory (EBBT) are used to find the end-point MD and VE of the end effector. So, at first the assumption of TBT has been performed to consider the effects of shear and rotational inertia. Then, EBBT is used. In continue Sobol’s sensitivity analysis method is applied to determine how VE and end-point MD is influenced by those geometric parameters. Finally, results of two mentioned theories are compared.

This paper presents the investigation of general formulation and numerical solution of the dynamic load carrying capacity (DLCC) of flexible link manipulator. The proposed method is based on open loop optimal control problem. A two point boundary value problem (TPBVP) is taken from the Pontryagin's minimum principle. The indirect approach is employed to derive optimality conditions. The system’s dynamics equation of motion is obtained from Gibbs-Appell (G-A) formulation and assumed mode method (AMM). Elastic properties of the links are modeled according to the assumption of Timoshenko beam theory (TBT) and its associated mode shapes. As TBT is more accurate compared with the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, it is utilized for mathematical modeling of flexible links. The main contribution of the paper is to calculate the maximum allowable load of a flexible link robot while an optimal trajectory is provided. Finally, the result of the simulation and experimental platform are compared for a two-link flexible arm to verify the introduced technique. The efficiency of the proposed method is illustrated by performing some simulation studies on the IUST flexible link manipulator. Simulation and experimental results confirm the validity of the claimed capability for controlling point-to-point motion of the proposed method and its application toward DLCC calculation.