The world population situation

Population experts appear to be reaching a consensus that there has been a perceptible decline over the last decade in the growth of the world's population. The decline is accounted for by the "new demographic transition" in the less developed countries (LDCs). The decline in fertility rates began in the 1950s in some LDCs and became more widespread during the 1970s. The process has not yet begun in many of the LDCs. During the 1960s it was observed that the declines in birth rates (to levels of 30 of less per 1000) were occurring mostly in small countries. Many of these countries were islands with levels of social and economic development above the developing country average. The key question is whether the recent downward trend in fertility in LDCs will continue, stabilize at the current level, or rise again. A primary concern about the future is that the poorer and less developed countries will end up with an increasing share of the world's population, with the share of the developed countries declining from 34% to 22% over the 1950-2000 period. Considerable differential exists in demographic growth patterns among various regions. The 12 largest LDCs (China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Mexico, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Turkey) contain 55% of the current world population, and the fertility decline of these nations is expected to have the maximum impact. 7 of these countries have had fertility declines of 14-35%. The force of the "population momentum" must also be considered. Most developing country populations have a young age distribution with considerable potential for population growth even after the fertility level reaches a replacement level and the net reproduction rate equals 1.     

Remittances and Happiness of Migrants and Their Home Households: Evidence Using Matched Samples

This paper explores how remittances influence happiness among migrants and their households of origin. It is based on a novel data set of matched samples of Bangladeshi migrant households (living in the UK and Malaysia) and their origin families in Bangladesh. Empirical findings suggest that remittances play a significant role in stimulating migrants’ happiness. We also find that the households of origin’s life satisfaction not only depends on receiving remittances from the emigrants, but also other factors such as number of migrants from the household living abroad and the migrants’ country of destination.     

The global importance of ‘illiberal moderates’, an exchange: partners in peace to precede a concert of democracies

The following is an exchange concerning the concept of ‘illiberal moderates’ and its implications for a new global architecture as well as for a worldview that sees the evolution of a global core of shared values which favour domestic and international security, in sharp contrast to the ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis. The original statement was published in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs (Etzioni 2006). A more extensive treatment can be found in Part III of Security first: for a muscular, moral foreign policy (Etzioni 2007b), which examines texts of four religious and two secular belief systems as well as review of relevant public opinion polls and ‘traveller notes’. Here follows a brief summary of the main thesis, followed by comments from prominent scholars and Etzioni's response to these comments.     

Validating crime prevention through environmental design construct through checklist using structural equation modelling

To date, there has been limited empirical exploration of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) measures to appraise their efficiency. The intention of the present study is to validate CPTED dimensions and its respective indicators developed to measure the CPTED construct. This construct is measured using four main dimensions, namely natural surveillance, access control, territoriality and exterior maintenance. The aim of this study is to identify factors that contribute in measuring the CPTED construct. The scale was administered by using on-site observation of a sample of 164 respondents in a typical residential area in Penang, Malaysia. The validation is carried out by employing the Confirmatory Factor Analysis using AMOS. The analysis was conducted by testing the higher order dimensionality of the CFA driven first-order solution by examining a second-order model. The final CPTED construct consists of four main dimensions with its respective indicators.     

Controversy over the concept ‘freedom’ during the Iranian constitutional revolution (1906– 09)

The Iranian constitutional revolution of 1906–09 paved the way for the establishment of new administrative institutions, adopting modern ideas and the hegemony of new political discourse over the archaic political reasoning. One of the most important aspects of the new discourse was the definition and internalization of modern concepts. This paper holds the view that the concept ‘freedom’ brought about a complicated problem for the socio-political sphere in the course of the Iranian revolution and, as such, deserves a thorough examination. Previous studies on the subject have usually neglected this aspect. Yet, this was exactly the main domain of the clash between traditionalism and modernity during the revolutionary years and brought about far-reaching results for Iranian society. This article attempts to contribute to this field by examining a number of Iranian journals of the period in order to evaluate their understanding of the concept ‘freedom’ and show the discrepancy between the constitutionalist and non-constitutionalist discourses.     

Internal validation of reduced PCR reaction volume of the Qiagen Investigator® Argus X-12 QS Kit from blood samples on FTA cards

The onus of proof in criminal cases is beyond any reasonable doubt, and the issue on the lack of complete internal validation data can be manipulated when it comes to justifying the validity and reliability of the X-chromosomal short tandem repeats analysis for court representation. Therefore, this research evaluated the efficiency of the optimized 60% reduced volumes for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification using the Qiagen Investigator® Argus X-12 QS Kit, as well as the capillary electrophoresis (CE) sample preparation for blood samples on Flinder's Technology Associates (FTA) cards. Good-quality DNA profile (3000–12,000 RFU) from the purified blood sample on FTA card (1.2 mm) were obtained using the optimized PCR (10.0 μL of PCR reaction volume and 21 cycles) and CE (9.0 μL Hi-Di™ Formamide and 0.3 μL DNA Size Standard 550 [BTO] and 27 s injection time) conditions. The analytical and stochastic thresholds were 100 and 200 RFU, respectively. Hence, the internal validation data supported the use of the optimized 60% reduced PCR amplification reaction volume of the Qiagen Investigator® Argus X-12 QS Kit as well as the CE sample preparation for producing reliable DNA profiles that comply with the quality assurance standards for forensic DNA testing laboratories, while optimizing the analytical cost.     

The Contribution of Commonwealth Armed Forces in UN Peacekeeping: The Case of Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh is one of the top troop contributing countries to UN Peacekeeping Operations. This paper traces the antecedents and history of the Bangladesh Armed Forces and follows Bangladesh’s participation in various peacekeeping operations over the past 25 years including Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Democratic Republic of Congo.