Asia and European transport biofuels stalled at the same place?

Over the past decade, both Asia and Europe have devoted considerable effort to expanding the production of first-generation biofuels to fuel cars, taxis, buses, trucks, motorcycles, etc. On the one hand, with “peak oil” potentially looming in the future, and on the other, with an insatiable need for petroleum and diesel, the prospect of large-scale use of biofuels enjoyed tremendous public appeal as they seemed to provide a long-term alternative and clean fuel source in Asia and Europe. However, globally today, biofuels constitute only 3 % of the total transport fuel mix. Production is still steadily increasing in some countries, but their economic competitiveness and environmental sustainability have come into question in others with the result that production has slowed down considerably or even halted. The outlook for second- and third-generation biofuels is promising. However, they also cannot yet supplement, far less substitute, for petroleum and diesel in a commercially viable way.     

The application of the Khiyar al-‘Aib (option of defect) principle in on-line contracts and consumer rights

This paper scrutinises the legal protection of consumer rights in on-line contracts through the application of Khiyar al-??Aib (option of defect). Khiyar al-??Aib is a legal Islamic mechanism by which, one party, both parties or even a third party can nullify a contract, electronically or conventionally. Khiyar (option) means the authority to nullify a contract and Aib means defect. In fact, it is a right given to the purchaser to cancel the contract if he discovers that the object acquired has defect that diminishes its value. In on-line contracts, the consumer has no direct contact with the merchant and cannot easily verify the quality of the goods, thus creating a situation in which contracting parties are not at equal bargaining strength. Therefore, application of Khiyar al-??Aib (option of defect) would be helpful in protecting consumer rights in the virtual world. This paper explores the Islamic principles by taking Iranian laws as well as the European law as a point of reference.     

Are Perceptions of Organizational Justice Universal? An Exploration of Measurement Invariance Across Thirteen Cultures

Previous research examined whether justice effects are comparable, focusing on quantitative differences in justice effects. This study examines whether justice perceptions are structured similarly or whether they are qualitatively different across working populations from 13 nations. Confirmatory factor analysis and multi-group analysis show that Colquitt??s (J Appl Psychol 86:386?C400, 2001) four-dimensional model of justice works well across these samples. However, factor intercorrelations and reliabilities are found to systematically vary between cultural samples. Perceptions of justice are more highly intercorrelated in power distant and collectivistic samples, in line with extensions of the relational model of authority. Score reliabilities were lower in collectivistic settings.     

Men and Women’s Perceptions of Justifications of Wife Beating: Evidence from Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2012–13

Pakistani women are vulnerable to all kinds of violence due to the patriarchal setup of society. We examined the justification of wife beating by women and men of reproductive group that comprised of 15–49 years of age by doing secondary data analysis on nationally representative cross- sectional survey data from the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey, 2012–13. The analysis was conducted on randomly selected 13,558 ever- married women and 3134 ever- married men representing all the four provinces of Pakistan including Gilgit Baltistan and federal capital Islamabad. The data showed that women justified wife beating more as compared to men. The findings of multivariable logistic regression depicted that women living with partners, having no access to information, lacking autonomy, and no control over income were more likely to justify wife beating while men who did not have access to information were more in favor of this acts. These findings may help in devising strategies to change the mindset regarding justification of wife beating in Pakistan.     

The use of technology in the transformation of business dispute resolution

The use of technology in dispute resolution mechanism can be viewed from two perspectives: first, as an aid in the conventional dispute resolution system, and second, as an online dispute resolution mechanism via the Internet. Online dispute resolution (ODR) is transforming the way disputes are being resolved, in particular, in business to consumer (B2C) transactions. ODR offers a more successful means of resolving e-commerce disputes. In fact, there is a new move by the Malaysian judiciary to transform its court system. Previously, the judiciary has been very conventional in its administration of justice, and the system is said to be slow and outdated. The court system in Malaysia has been frequently criticised because of its dilatoriness in resolving disputes, resulting in a large backlog of cases. To overcome these problems, the judiciary has introduced a new system called the e-court. New methods including as e-filing, electronic case management, queue management, and court recording and transcribing form the complete e-court mechanism.     

A policy-selection/ goal-formulation model for public systems

This paper attempts to present an analytical framework of analysis of problems relating to public systems. Current optimization models, which originated in the private sector, are not adequate to handle the complexity of the decision making processes in public policy analysis. The proposed model aims at lessening ideological debates over statements of goals, and it emphasizes policy selection through goal redefinitions where both goals and policies are formulated simultaneously. The model is based on an iterative process where consensus over policies is arrived at between the policy maker and the constituents of the public system. The principal feature of the model is that it incorporates political debates and bargains, and provides for the development of insight.     

Has Legislative Television Changed Legislator Behavior?: C-SPAN2 and the Frequency of Senate Filibustering

Using data from 1959–1998, this studyexamines the impact of legislativetelevision (C-SPAN2) on the number offilibusters in the United States Senate. As previous work has suggested, theinstitutional rules of the federallegislative branch of government in theU.S. often allow for politicalgrandstanding and posturing, and theseactivities are enhanced with the presenceof television cameras on the legislativefloor. Like those previous studies, thepresent work builds a theoretical modelwherein political services are consideredsearch/experience goods, and serviceproviders (federal legislators) areexpected utility maximizers who areconcerned with promoting their policypreferences and their re-electionprospects. Poisson model estimates suggestthat the presence of legislative televisionhas worked to increase the filibuster countin the Senate. As a result, such posturingand positioning on the issues by incumbents(in front of television cameras) is costlyfor challengers to replicate and likelycontributes to lower turnover rates in thelegislative branch.