Between Darius and Khomeini: exploring Iran's national identity problematique

Iran, since the advent of its nation-state building process, has struggled to define its national identity in a relevant and resonant way. This article, while acknowledging the multi-dimensional nature of Iran's national identity, focuses on its two most profound components: Nationalism and Islamism. It explores how the tensions between these two are at the heart of not only the problem of Iranian identity but also of Persian identity. Examining how these two bases of identity also rely on similarity as well as difference the article argues, through the use of the tool of a problematique, that a coherent Iranian national identity, inclusive of all including ethnic minorities, is not possible until the tensions between Nationalism and Islamism at the heart of Persian identity are resolved.     

Software reliability assessment using accelerated testing methods

The use of operational profiles and usage-based testing has received considerable attention recently in the software engineering literature. Testing under the actual operational profile can, however, be expensive, time consuming or even infeasible in situations where the performance of a system is dominated by infrequent but highly critical events. We consider a real application that deals with telecommunications network restoration after network failure caused by cuts in fibre optic cables. We use this application to demonstrate the usefulness of traditional accelerated testing methods to test and estimate software reliability. These methods, which have been extensively used in hardware reliability, have an important role to play in software reliability assessment as well.     

The National Laws of Myanmar: Making of Statelessness for the Rohingya

This article examines the legal status of the Rohingya in Myanmar by analysing relevant constitutional provisions (of 1947, 1974 and 2008) and other major citizenship legislations including the Citizenship Law, 1982. A doctrinal analysis demonstrates that: (i) the earlier Constitutions and laws provided citizenship for the Rohingya (where they were identified as an ethnic minority); and (ii) their status has been changed gradually under the later constitutions and legislations until recently, when they are regarded as neither minority nor citizen and rendered stateless by the law. The role of legislation in disempowering the Rohingya is thus made explicit.     

Positive dependence and monotonicity in conditional distributions

Positively dependent random variables exhibit the property that an extreme value of one of the variables tends to be accompanied by extreme values of the others. In this paper we define two notions of positive dependence which lead to monotonicity theorems for conditional distributions.     

Likelihood Prediction for Generalized Linear Mixed Models under Covariate Uncertainty

This article presents the techniques of likelihood prediction for the generalized linear mixed models. Methods of likelihood prediction are explained through a series of examples; from a classical one to more complicated ones. The examples show, in simple cases, that the likelihood prediction (LP) coincides with already known best frequentist practice such as the best linear unbiased predictor. This article outlines a way to deal with the covariate uncertainty while producing predictive inference. Using a Poisson errors-in-variable generalized linear model, it has been shown in certain cases that LP produces better results than already known methods.     

Asset Ownership and Microloan Repayment: Examining Data from Bangladesh

Employing data for 34,255 loans made by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) to 12,455 repeat borrowers during the 2002–6 period, this article examines the relationship between borrowers' asset holdings and microloan repayment. Estimating a series of binomial probit specifications, it finds a positive relationship between land ownership and loan repayment; however, taken collectively, ownership of non‐land assets diminishes the likelihood of repayment. Influences of specific assets on repayment probabilities vary across asset types: ownership of land, corrugated tin houses, vans and rickshaws increases the likelihood of repayment, while ownership of sewing machines, televisions, radios and bicycles corresponds with a decreased repayment probability.     

New Estimates and Projections of Population Growth in Pakistan

Pakistan's population growth rate rose steadily from about 2.6 percent per annum in the early 1960s to a high of about 3.5 percent during the late 1980s. Since then it has declined to an estimated 2.1 percent for 2003. Growth rates calculated from the population censuses, which show a very different picture, are distorted by differential accuracy of enumeration. During the period of rising growth rates, fertility was constant at just under 7 children per woman while life expectancy at birth rose by nearly 20 years. Fertility decline began in the late 1980s, bringing the population growth rate down with it. Remarkably, there appears to have been little change in life expectancy over the past 15 years.