Iran's Financial Stake in Caspian Oil

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, the questions of how to divide the Caspian Sea and transport its oil and gas have not been resolved and have become more problematic because of outside interference. It is in Iran's financial interest to take the initiative and either accept a smaller section of the Caspian Sea—if guaranteed the opportunity to participate in the transport of its hydrocarbons—or propose an Iranian solution of creating a joint Caspian oil and gas company that would get the hydrocarbons out more quickly and efficiently.     

Staffing the higher civil services in Bangladesh: An analysis of recruitment and selection processes

In developing a recruitment and selection policy for the Bangladesh Civil Service there has been significant disagreement over whether this should be based exclusively on merit or whether merit should be modified in the interests of equity. The government has, in practice, required that the policy should recognize the principle of equity and various interests have been given a privileged status in recruitment. At the same time the administration of the recruitment process has been conducted in a way that has undermined confidence in it. The authors describe the policy differences and problems of administration concluding with ideas on desirable reforms.     

Thermal requirements of immature stages of Chrysomya albiceps (Diptera: Calliphoridae) as a common forensically important fly

Entomological material may be used to estimate the time since death occurred (postmortem interval, PMI) in forensically obscure cases. The method that is commonly used to calculate minimum post-mortem interval (mPMI, i.e., the least amount of time since one can be confident death occurred) is based on the relationship between insect development and ambient temerature. Isomegalen and isomorphen diagrams are among methods allowing to calculate the age of necorphagous insects, yet thermal summation models provide the most precise and acurate estimations. The digrams are prepared based on the length or the developmental stages of the larvae as a function of time and mean ambient temperature. A knowledge of thermal requirements, in particular lower temperature threshold (D_z) at which development of a species terminates, is of essential importance to calculate ADD (Accumulated Degree Days). In this study different temperature regimes were used to construct the isomorphen diagram, examinate changes in larval body length at different ambient temperatures and to estimate the thermal requirements for developemnt of Chrysomya albiceps, the most common dipteran species reported on human and animal cadavers in Iran. Six development events including hatching, 1st ecdysis, 2nd ecdysis, wandering, pupariation and eclosion were studied under eleven constant temperature regims (17–37 ⁰C). The development rate of Ch. albiceps increased as temperature increased. The larval length peaked at the end of third stage and then decreased at wandering stage. The maximum larval length occurred at 72 h post oviposition at either 31, 33, or 35 °C. At 17 °C, larvae did not hatch from eggs and at 37 °C wandering larvae did not proceed to pupariation, and thus larval development were analysed at the nine left over temperatures. The development stages required at least (D_z ± SE) 13.04 ± 0.37, 14.29 ± 0.45, 15.69 ± 0.56, 15.18 ± 0.56, 14.94 ± 0.48, and 11.23 ± 0.41 °C to reach one of the successive developmentl events, respectively. The estimated thermal summation constant (k) for those the six events were 10.43 ± 0.27, 19.31 ± 0.32, 27.87 ± 1.3, 55.94 ± 1.82, 66.69 ± 3.5, and 143.52 ± 5.61 ADD accordingly.     

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.