BACKGROUND Complementary health insurance is increasingly used to remedy the limitations and shortcomings of the basic health insurance benefit packages. Hence, it is essential to gather reliable information about the amount of Willingness to Pay (WTP) for health insurance. We assessed the WTP for health insurance in Iran in order to suggest an affordable complementary health insurance. METHO...

Vermiculture is the culture of earthworms. The goal is to continually increase the number of worms in order to obtain a sustainable harvest. The worms are either used to expand a vermicomposting operation or sold to customers who use them for the same or other purposes. Vermicomposting is the process by which worms are used to convert organic materials (usually wastes) into a humus-like materia...

Innovation is a complex phenomenon and process involving translation of knowledge into new techniques, products, services. It is considered crucial for sustainable agriculture development and achievement of long-term food security. The review describes the diversity of innovation and relates it to agro-food sector. It also sheds light on different innovation models and explores their contributi...

In recent years the major developments in employee-benefit plans sponsored or underwritten by private organizations have been reported regularly in the Social Xecurity Bulletin. Thiis year the report is in two parts. Part I, which appeared in the April issue of the Bulletin, included 1959 data on coverage, contributions, and benefits under health, welfare, and retirement plans. In addition it d...

From time to time the Bulletin carries reports on operations in the five States that supplement the unemployment insurance benefit with a small allowance for dependents of beneficiaries . This article discusses sources from which data on the dependents of wage earners can be obtained and the use of such information in estimating the extent to which inclusion of dependents’ allowances aflects th...

The purpose of this study is to present the information on the duration of treatment and the cost of work-related low back pain. Using the compensation-database for 1997 work-related low back pain (n=9,277), this study estimated the duration of treatment, the cost of work-related low back pain, the relationship between them, and probability of being off treatment at different intervals. The mea...

m.a. abdoli 1 , b. tavakoli *1,2, m.h. menhaj3 1- dept. of environmental engineering, university of tehran, faculty of environmental science, tehran, iran. 2-dept. of environment, faculty of natural resources, university of guilan, someh sara, iran 3- dept. of rural development, faculty of agricultural sciences, university of guilan, rasht, iran *corresponding author's e-mail: babak_13...

The future of biomass energy in the global energy system depends on many major factors, among others on the attitude of society in rural areas to the biomass energy and the renewable energy resources. Biomass energy plays increasing role in rural areas with its contribution to the self sufficiency of people in the countryside. The paper deals with the analysis the opportunities of utilization o...