Competition and Demographics in Large Indian Cities

Recent studies suggest that consumer-household attributes may be as important in determining the level of competition in certain markets as firm characteristics and the number of firms. However, evidence on which consumer-household attributes matter for competition is limited, especially for developing countries. Focusing on India's retail sector, this article contributes to this literature by showing that the number of adult non-workers per household in the city, a proxy for shopping time opportunity cost, has a strong effect on competition between retailers. Policy implications of our findings in light of the ongoing dramatic reductions in non-workers in India are discussed.     

Modern Mass Media and Traditional Communication in Afghanistan

This article explores the bipolar structure of communication in Afghanistan, where the latest technological advancements in media coexist with a complex system of traditional communication. After 22 years of civil war and the destruction of most modern media facilities, Afghanistan's traditional channels of communication have become even more significant. This article examines the history of the press in Afghan politics and society and asks what roles modern and traditional communication systems and values may play in the future.     

Reframing Orientalism: Weber and Islam

In debates on the encounters of Middle Eastern societies with Western modernity, Max Weber's work is invariably seen as the classical statement of what may be called sociological Orientalism. Most 'Third Worldist' and other anti-Orientalist critics locate Weberian and neo-Weberian perspectives within Orientalism as a discourse of Western domination which has remained hegemonic since the mid-nineteenth century. In contrast, this paper argues that only with the victory of the Bolsheviks in 1917 and the subsequent consolidation of the Soviet bloc were conditions in place for the re-articulation of Orientalism as an ideological construct, a discourse of domination. Weber as well as Marx and other pre-Soviet thinkers are thus relocated outside the reach of the Orientalist/anti-Orientalist opposition, where they display significant differences from both. The essay then turns to reconsider W'eber's specific research programme and his views on Islam and shows their intrinsic limitations for the current debate over the rise and trajectory of militant Islamism. It concludes by outlining a still recognizably Weberian strategy for resolving this debate.     

The Relationship between Meteorological Conditions and Homicide,Suicide, Rage,and Psychiatric Hospitalization

This study focuses on the relationship between the incidence of homicide, rage, suicide, and psychiatric hospitalization as violent behaviors with temperature, humidity, and air pressure as specific meteorological variables in the city of Mashhad, in the northeast of Iran. The data were obtained from Iran Meteorological Organization, official registry of Legal Medicine Organization and the local psychiatric hospital, March 2009 to Feb 2010 daily and were analyzed with SPSS‐14 using Pearson correlation coefficient, ANOVA, and post hoc analysis tests. The rates of rage and psychiatric admission had a significant relationship with the daily mean air temperature, minimum relative humidity, maximum relative humidity, minimum daily pressure, and maximum daily air pressure (p < 0.0001). There was no significant correlation between homicide and suicide rates with any meteorological variables (p > 0.05). We concluded that, the possibility of nonfatal violence and psychiatric hospitalization would increase in hot and arid weather with low air pressure.     

THE EXISTENCE OF LAW NUMBER 23 YEAR 2002 ON CHILD PROTECTION

The increase number of street children that resulted in the disturbance of sense of justice, and humanity value in society as they have become ideal value stipulated in the preamble of 1945 UUD NKRI that state has obligation to protect its citizen, as it is also regulates in Part 4 UUD 1945 preamble. The increase number of street children indicates shifting function of state, which in the theory recognized function of state to provide protection toward all citizen including street children. The increase number of street children also indicates that state has ignored its duty to provide legal protection toward citizen yet also street children. Meanwhile, Law No. 23 year 2002 on children protection only regulates the general term of children protection and it still lacks of rules and concept of street children protection in the specific way as a basis to provide legal protection toward street children. The result of this research show that Law No. 23 year 2002 on children protection did not specifically accomodate the practice of legal protection on street children. This condition due to the process of Law on Children Protection drafting process are the issues of general term of children protection, education issue, economic issue, monetery crisis, poverty issue, political issue and street children issue. However until now, the issue relates to street children has increased qualitatively and quantitatively because Indonesia still regarding the issue of street children is an unfamous issue to discuss seriously and the fund to solve the problem of street children is incomparable to the economic oriented demand, meanwhile street children are children that have special needs that require attention and proper specific protection supported with specific regulation that regulates in Law No. 23 year 2002 in children protection as children with special needs.     

The relationship between socio-economic characteristics, victimization and CPTED principles: evidence from the MIMIC model

This study seeks to explore how different house type, socio-economic variables in the neighborhood (length of residence and household income) and residents’ victimization experience influence Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) and its respective principles: natural surveillance, access control, territoriality and maintenance. The study focuses on a sample of 164 inhabitants from a typical neighborhood in the city of Penang, Malaysia. An observation checklist was used to measure all the four principles of CPTED. A Multiple Indicator-Multiple Cause (MIMIC) analysis using AMOS 16.0 was employed to analyze the data at the level of individual property. Each latent factor and the relationships among them were modeled in a priori MIMIC hypothesized model. Prior to the MIMIC analysis, the study employed first and second-order confirmatory factor analysis on CPTED to determine the best indicators for the CPTED construct. The findings confirmed that CPTED is best measured by four principles. The results further indicate that CPTED is associated with a reduced risk of burglary victimization, while household income is positively associated with CPTED. The model shows that territoriality has a negative direct relationship with victimization. There are direct and positive influences of house type on natural surveillance and territoriality, while the length of residence only affects access control.     

Nocturnal Oviposition Behavior of Necrophagous Dipterans in Kelantan,Malaysia*

Abstract: The likelihood of dipteran maggots colonizing a corpse due to nocturnal oviposition can be used to challenge the postmortem interval (PMI) estimated assuming diurnal oviposition. Earlier experiments tested nocturnal oviposition behavior by exposing fresh baits once during a single night. In this pilot study, oviposition behavior was studied using beef baits, which, simulating the decay of the body seen in case situations, decomposed inside cages designed to open and close at scheduled intervals during consecutive night or twilight periods. Freshly hatched maggots from diurnally oviposited eggs emerged in control baits on the third day, while a limited number of maggots attributable to nocturnal or twilight oviposition were observed in experimental baits only on the fifth or sixth day, indicating a categorical delay. These results suggest that such delayed and limited nocturnal oviposition is not forensically significant since the larger maggots deriving from diurnal oviposition would be the ones considered when estimating PMI.     

The Defeat of Shabina Begum in the House of Lords

The Court of Appeal last year delivered a well-publicised judgment declaring that now 17-year-old Shabina Begum had been unlawfully excluded from Denbigh High School when she insisted on wearing the Islamic ‘jilbab’ ([2005] EWCA Civ. 199; [2005] 1 W.L.R. 3372; [2005] 2 All E.R. 396 (Judgment of 2 March 2005); The Times, 4 March 2005, at p. 85. See also J. Gau, “Muslim Dress – School Exclusion – Human Rights”, Ecclesiastical Law Journal 8/37 (2005), pp. 239–240.). The dispute received huge national and international press coverage, but on Wednesday 22nd March 2006, in a remarkable u-turn, the House of Lords overturned the Court of Appeal’s decision on all counts (R (On the Application of Begum) v Headteacher and Governors of Denbigh High School [2006] UKHL 15 (Judgment of 22 March 2006); The Guardian, 23 March 2006, at p. 6; and The Independent, 23 March 2006, at p. 4. Members of the Appellate Committee were Lord Bingham of Cornhill; Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead; Lord Hoffmann; Lord Scott of Foscote and Baroness Hale of Richmond.). The reversal meant Shabina’s Article 9 right to manifest a belief had not been violated by the school. This analysis will briefly examine the reasoning behind their Lordship’s judgment and will provide a short commentary on the likely effect the decision will have on religious groups wishing to wear religious symbols in UK schools. LLB (Hons), LLM, Cert. Ed. Mohammad Idriss is Senior Lecturer in Public Law at Coventry University, United Kingdom and is a PhD Candidate at the University of Birmingham; M.Idriss@Coventry.ac.uk     

Migration decision from Bangladesh: permanent versus temporary

More than 50% of the total migration from Bangladesh occurred from Sylhet, located to northern part of the country since the middle of the last century. This paper provides an empirical distinction between the temporary migrants (Bangladeshi citizens engaged in earning aboard) and the permanent migrants (those who have the dual citizenship) based on their cost conditions, earnings, and utilization of remittances in their country of origin. Temporary migrants’ educational status, per capita income allocation to family members, work experience before migration, source of income and income range are much lower compared with the permanent migrants. But, the dependency ratio, contribution to the family, remittances, risk etc. are higher for the permanent migrants than the temporary migrants. Cost of migration and the migration decision are inversely related. Migration costs determine individual’s decision to migrate permanently or temporarily. Our results suggest that higher migration cost reduces the probability of permanent migration.