Mainstreaming responsible conduct of research education in Malaysia

Trust is the bedrock of research, built on honesty, responsibility, accountability, and transparency. When embraced by all researchers and embedded in all aspects of research, these values help ensure that research has a positive impact on the research community, public, and policy makers, thereby enabling discoveries and innovations to enhance the well-being of humanity.     

中印关系中的美国因素

中国、美国和印度之间的三边关系近来比较引人注目。冷战期间三方中的两方经常联合起来反对第三方,中印在经历短期的友好以后,也曾相互开战,之后美国因素逐步变得重要。随着国际格局的演变,中国和印度都在积极与美国发展关系,同时中印之间的关系也在不断改善。当前在恐怖主义的共同威胁和全球化的推动下,过去那种对抗和遏制的模式将不会再现,三个国家将更加紧密地结合。尽管中印关系中的美国因素依然重要,但在现实中其作用正在降低。     

The United States Congress and nuclear war powers: explaining legislative nonfeasance

Scholarly debate over the role of the United States Congress in approving military action has focused on the respective war powers granted the executive and legislature by the United States Constitution. Although a voluminous literature has examined the institutional and partisan politics shaping their exercise, a conspicuous lacuna concerns nuclear war powers. Despite periodic but mostly ineffective reassertions of congressional prerogatives over war, the decision to employ nuclear weapons has been left entirely to presidential discretion since 1945. Explaining this consistent refusal by Congress to rein in the ultimate presidential power and exercise co-responsibility for the most devastating form of war relies less on disputatious constitutional grounds than on three arguments about congressional dysfunctionality, legislative irresponsibility, and the relative costs of collective action by federal lawmakers on perilous national security questions.     

Learning and Behavioural Spillovers of Nutritional Information

This paper provides evidence for informational spillovers within urban slums in Chandigarh, India. I identify three groups, a treatment group, a neighbouring spillover group, and a non-adjacent pure control group. Mothers of children (aged three to six years) enrolled in government day-care centres are given recipe books in the treatment group to reduce malnutrition in their children. Spillovers to neighbouring (untreated) mothers can be through social learning or imitation. Results from a difference-in-differences analysis show that nutritional knowledge measured through a quiz increases among neighbouring untreated mothers relative to a control group. Neighbouring mothers exhibit learning spillovers, changes in dietary behaviour and a reduction in food expenditure regardless of their level of literacy. Spillovers not only raise the cost effectiveness of health information programmes but are important to consider when designing an experiment as causal effects of treatments can be attenuated if the spillover group is used as a control group.     

Changing trends in acute poisoning in Chandigarh zone: a 25-year autopsy experience from a tertiary care hospital in northern India.

A 25-year autopsy study (1972-1997) of acute poisoning deaths from a tertiary care hospital in northern India (Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh) revealed a steep increase in the incidence of acute poisoning since 1987. The majority (68%) of subjects were between the ages of 14 and 30 years, and there was a male preponderance (69%). The main victims were students and unemployed youths, followed by agricultural workers and domestic workers. The proportion of urban victims increased from 45% in the period from 1972 to 1977 to 72% in the period from 1992 to 1997. The proportion of suicidal deaths increased from 34% in the period from 1972 to 1977 to 77% in the period from 1992 to 1997, whereas accidental deaths decreased from 63% to 17% in the same period. Barbiturates (37%) and copper sulfate (22%) were the most common poisons causing mortality between 1972 and 1977; organophosphates (46%) became the most common between 1977 and 1982. Since 1982, aluminum phosphide (65%) has been the most common poison.     

Shotgun shooting in northern India--a review (1980-1999)

Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Chandigarh undertakes the examination of the crime cases of some northern states of India. The shooting cases of last two decades (1980-1999) involving shotguns were analysed in this laboratory. This paper consists of the study of 360 actual cases of shotguns for evaluation of various parameters, such as type of firearm, number of firearm and firing, location of wound, age, occupation, sex and caste of accused and victim, etc. Out of 360 cases, 253 (70%) were classified as homicidal, 68 (19%) accidental, 11 (3%) suicidal, 9 (2.5%) hunting and 19 (5.5%) cases of insufficient information including the cases of illegal possession of firearm. Single Barrel Breech Loading (SBBL) gun 144 (40%) was preferred over Single Barrel Muzzle Loading (SBML) 109 (30.3%), Double Barrel Breech Loading (DBBL) 72 (20%) and Double Barrel Muzzle Loading (DBML) gun 35 (9.7%). All the breechloader guns were of 12 bore. Muzzleloader gun were recovered only from the remote rural areas. Three hundred and thirty-one (92%) cases involved single, 22 (6%) double and 7 (2%) more than two shotgun. Majority of cases were found of single firing 288 (80%), followed by double 29 (8%) and multi-firing 18 (5%). Eleven (3%) cases were of misfiring and in 14 (4%) cases information was not available. Accidental and suicidal cases had only one firing. The mean age for male and female victim was 31 and 24 years, respectively. Occupationally, agriculture is predominating over business, service and security guards for accused and for victim agriculture followed by service, business, student and security guards are in the descending order. Caste wise the most aggressive community of Kshatriyas is predominating as accused and victim over lower cast people. Head (64%) being a vital part was chosen most frequently for committing suicide followed by body (36%). Service personnel committed maximum number of suicide.     

Using morphometric and analytical techniques to characterize elephant ivory

There is a need to characterize Asian elephant ivory and compare with African ivory for controlling illegal trade and implementation of national and international laws. In this paper, we characterize ivory of Asian and African elephants using Schreger angle measurements, elemental analysis {X-ray fluorescence (XRF), inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS)} and isotopic analysis. We recorded Schreger angle characteristics of elephant ivory at three different zones in ivory samples of African (n=12) and Asian (n=28) elephants. The Schreger angle ranged from 32 degrees to 145 degrees and 30 degrees to 153 degrees in Asian and African ivory, respectively. Elemental analysis (for Asian and African ivory) by XRF, ICP-AES and ICP-MS provided preliminary data. We attempted to ascertain source of origin of Asian elephant ivory similarly as in African ivory based on isotopes of carbon, nitrogen and strontium. We determined isotopic ratios of carbon (n=31) and nitrogen (n=31) corresponding to diet and rainfall, respectively. Reference ivory samples from five areas within India were analyzed using collagen and powder sample and the latter was found more suitable for forensic analysis. During our preliminary analysis, the range of delta13C values (-13.6+/-0.15 per thousand and -25.6+/-0.15 per thousand) and delta15N values (10.2+/-0.15 per thousand and 3.5+/-0.15 per thousand) were noted.