Experience of a financial reforms project in Bangladesh

This article reviews the efforts of the Government of Bangladesh aimed at reforming the public sector financial management system as part of overall public administration reforms through a technical assistance project jointly sponsored by the government and the Department for International Development, Government of the UK. It has evolved through initial setbacks into a highly successful project delivering tangible outputs over the last three years, with prospects for future extension until reforms are internalized and become self‐sustaining. Attempts have been made in this article to analyse and evaluate the underlying reasons for the problems in the first year of implementation as well as the factors that contributed to the recovery of the image of the project and its continuing successes in successive phases. The article highlights the lessons learned from the project in its bad as well as good times and suggests that this experience can be of great value to those undergoing the same type of reform experiment. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Strategic port classification: International clustering‐based approach for decision‐making optimization

This comprehensive study aims to identify from a strategic perspective a new port classification approach based on port features and characteristics. Data of 3,685 ports worldwide have been collected, and 25 dimensions with 62 factors have been identified and utilized to analyze and classify ports worldwide. The K‐means clustering technique has been utilized to conduct the port classification process at several levels. First, ports have been classified into two general clusters (low capabilities and moderate‐to‐high capabilities). Then only ports with moderate‐to‐high potentials were classified and taxonomized. In addition to identifying and classifying ports with moderate‐to‐high capabilities, findings of the second round demonstrate the existence of three main clusters. The new port classification has been used to provide new insights about the top 50 terminal ports as a real case study. This innovative approach is valuable for most port‐related decision‐making situations and facilitates the global supply chain management processes.     

Identification of sex depending on radiological examination of foot and patella

Forensic anthropology involves the building of an antemortem profile of an individual from skeletal remains. This includes sex, race determination, and age and stature estimation. Because most bones that are conventionally used for sex determination are often recovered either in a fragmented or incomplete state, it has become necessary to use denser bones that are often recovered intact, eg, the patella, calcaneus, and talus. The present work was performed to investigate the possibility of estimation of sex from some radiologic measurements among a known cross-section of Egyptian population. In this study lateral and anteroposterior radiographs of the right foot and knee were made on 160 living unfractured and nonpathologic individuals comprising 80 males and 80 females aged 25 to 65 years referred to the Radiology Department of Assiut University Hospital. Two measurements on right patella (maximum height and maximum width) and 2 measurements of metatarsal bones (length and midshaft diameter), were used to determine sex by univariate and multivariate discriminant analysis. Eighty radiographs of foot and patella of individuals not used in the original sample were randomly selected to test the accuracy of this method. The study revealed that significant sex differences were demonstrated based on these measurements taken on metatarsal bones more than on patella. One function associating 2 parameters (length and midshaft) of the third metatarsal bone obtained the highest value of correct sex determination with rate of 100% accuracy. The multivariate function associating length of the first, third, and fifth metatarsal bones and midshaft of first, second, and fifth metatarsal gave 100% accuracy. Test of multivariate function on the independent sample revealed a correct classification of 87.5%.     

Postmortem Liver and Kidney Tissue Concentrations of Heroin Biomarkers and Their Metabolites in Heroin-Related Fatalities*†

A method was developed and validated for analyzing 6-monoacetylmorphine, morphine, 6-acetylcodeine, and codeine in routine postmortem liver and kidney specimens using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. Samples were prepared with a Stomacher instrument followed by solid-phase extraction. All calibration curves [0.5–1000 ng/g] were linear with coefficients of determination greater than 0.99 and limits of quantification of 1.0 ng/g. Within-run precision ranged between 2.0% and 8.0%, between-run precision ranged between 1.0% and 9.0%, and accuracy ranged between −5.0% and +3.0%. Matrix effects ranged from −18% to +9%. After matrix effects were excluded, analytical recoveries ranged from 76% to 94%. The distributions of 6-monoacetylmorphine, morphine, 6-acetylcodeine, and codeine were investigated in 31 postmortem cases in which heroin was the primary cause of death. In the current study, the median free morphine ratios were calculated for liver to blood and kidney to blood, which were 2.2 and 4.0, respectively. The current report highlights the importance of testing multiple specimens, including liver and kidney, in heroin-related deaths, especially if no blood samples are available. Furthermore, this work presents new information regarding the distribution of heroin metabolites in liver and kidney.     

Employee Readiness for Change in Public Higher Education Institutions: Examining the Joint Effect of Leadership Behavior and Emotional Intelligence

This study aimed to examine the effects of leadership behavior and emotional intelligence (EI) on readiness for change and to investigate the moderating effects of organizational commitment on the relationship among leadership behavior, EI, and readiness to change. Data was collected using surveys and Partial least squares structural equations modeling (PLS SEM) was employed. The findings of the study indicated that leadership behavior and EI have significant effects on employees’ readiness for change. More importantly, it confirmed the moderating effect of organizational commitment. This study provides an empirical explanation of the joint effect of some crucial change management determinants.     

Political Brand Equity Model: The Integration of Political Brands in Voter Choice

The voters’ choices about political parties have many similarities with how they make their choices about commercial brands. Therefore, political parties are now constantly applying the concept and strategies of brand management to make the political product attractive, appealable, trustable, differentiable, a source of long-term relationships, and a decision-making driver. Furthermore, the political parties have to play an active role in the community's political socialization processes, which rely heavily on branding strategies. Because, the party equity is largely based on the community's social gregariousness that has profound effect on the electorates' propensity to participate in the politics. This study has deeply explored and broadened the concept of party equity analogous to commercial brand equity typology by developing a politics-specific brand equity model. This model demonstrates the integration of political brands in voter choice. Empirically, this model has been validated by collecting 550 valid responses from the constituency of District Gujrat, Pakistan. A careful analysis of these responses through structural equation modeling methodology has revealed that political parties vary according to the outcomes of their role in the political socialization process of the communities, loyalty, and voters’ attitude. Parties that have favorable role in the socialization process have strong party knowledge and thus have high party equity as compared to competing political parties, which have a weak position of party knowledge. Similarly, this study provides the roadmap and guidelines for the political parties to manage their party equity. Similarly, the model would be able to facilitate political parties in comparing different constituencies on the basis of their diversified social dynamics and political knowledge and in the development of a constituency-based manifesto, also termed “localized manifesto,” to further enhance their vote bank.     

The Discursive Construction of Terrorist Group Identity

The media coverage of terrorist acts has been the subject of numerous scientific studies. However, the terrorist groups’ own communication perspectives have not been thoroughly researched. The following article deals with terrorist groups and their use of websites for identity building. We examine the discursive construction of terrorist group identity through critical discourse analysis (CDA). The CDA of online texts from websites of terrorist groups is based on a five macro-strategy scheme. Our sample consists of six terrorist groups, with each group of two sharing different motivations: social-revolutionary, ethno-nationalist, or religious. All the groups analyzed are listed as terrorist organizations by the European Union. The CDA of 27 terrorist websites, purposively sampled, was conducted using two coders per site. Through this analysis, the researchers draw conclusions on strategies employed by terrorist organizations in building identity and how to counter their unregulated propaganda.     

Bangladesh-Pakistan relations: hostage to a traumatic past

Bangladesh-Pakistan relations reached a low point in December 2013 when the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh convicted nine persons of war crimes pertaining to Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, and imposed a death sentence on senior Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Quader Molla. This paper examines the trials in connection to their impact on Bangladesh-Pakistan relations. The analysis in this paper shows that the traumatic break of East and West Pakistan continues to haunt bilateral relations and now has spill-over effects on South Asian regionalism. It also argues that the Awami League-India nexus is another historically persistent factor precluding better Dhaka-Islamabad relations.     

试析中国在苏丹西部达尔富尔地区冲突中的立场

本研究主要关注从2003年到2008年12月中国对苏丹西部达尔富尔地区冲突的立场。苏丹国内和国际上都有人指责中国与苏丹政府之间存在着特殊关系,向苏丹政府提供了无条件的支持。中国也被指责阻碍了旨在推动苏丹政府和平解决达尔富尔冲突、停止该地区蔓延的暴力活动的国际决议。这在很大程度上困扰了中国外交,使中国外交投入了宝贵的精力和时间,来为自己的立场辩护,并在国际舆论面前改善自己的形象。实际上,这是对中国在达尔富尔冲突中立场的误读,忽视了中国立场的转变和为冲突解决所发挥的积极作用。     

Does public participation matter? Inclusive growth in East Asia

Inclusiveness in economic development has lately emerged as a critical factor for development. This paper adopts an analytical concept of inclusive growth to evaluate East Asia’s economic success. It contests the Western conceptualization of the critical role of public participation in development, and argues that it has played a limited role in terms of inclusive growth in East Asia. Several factors have influenced the outcome of research in this area including the choice of methodology adopted, the challenge of defining and measuring inclusive growth, and the unclear mode and impact of public participation in the process.