The employment effects of immigration: a balance sheet approach

The impact of immigration on unemployment in Canada is examined for the period 1983-1985. The authors attempt to construct a balance sheet of immigration in terms of labor supply and demand. They conclude that immigrants create more jobs than they fill, and that their net effect on the employment situation is positive. (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

New sources on the demographic history of the Southern Andes (sixteenth to eighteenth centuries)

The author describes and evaluates some little-known sources of data on the Southern Andes for the period from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century.     

作为“自然史”记录的景观图像——明清时期“中国景观”在西方出版物中的插图绘刻研究

明清时期的西方出版物中关于“中国景观”的插图,实质上就是透过“西洋镜”发现中国的自然史图像记录,其借用“他者”的眼光来反观中国景观的自然形态与社会文化变迁,由此“图像史·景观史·艺术史”藉由“绘画/制图术”这类视觉工具而得以联结。可以说,彼时的欧洲人应都相信这些图像所承载的神秘异域的镜像与想像就是“真的”。这些插图极大地唤起了西方对中国、对东方文化的本能好奇心和浓厚兴趣,亦具有萨义德意义上以欧洲为中心的西方对中国“描绘与想象”的文化表征。而且,这些插图以“另一种目光”为已流逝的中国景观保留了珍贵的记忆痕迹,亦可为当下批判性景观设计传承提供文本依据。     

Of orphans and balloons

Technologies with significant implications for expenditures continue to reach the health care system. These technologies range from orphan drugs/biologicals used to treat rare diseases to balloons used to treat the common occurrence of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in aging men. Because payment for these technologies can represent a serious financial drain on third-party payers, utilization has to be carefully evaluated, monitored, and controlled.     

Investigational: what's in a name

The term "investigational" has become the fulcrum upon which coverage decisions turn. All third-party payers, including the federal government, use varying definitions of the term for the purpose of excluding treatments from coverage for payment. Unfortunately, no consistent definition of the term is available to payers to guide them in their coverage decisions.     

Coverage, technology assessment, and the courts

Coverage decisions by third-party payers are relying more and more heavily on the conclusions of technology assessment programs about the safety and effectiveness of technologies applied in specific clinical situations. Assessment programs vary markedly in the sophistication and rigor of their methodology. Payers differ as to how such assessment information is integrated into their decision-making processes. Finally, coverage decisions about a specific technology can vary widely across the country.     

Assaultive behavior. Does provocation begin in the front office?

1. Provocation is an important risk predictor because these issues can be recognized, assessed, and appropriate interventions can be implemented to reduce the associated risks. It is only by the reduction of such "non-fixed" risk factors that any reduction of assaults can be accomplished. 2. Involuntary admission, patients with dementia or organic brain disorder, physical or verbal limits, staff attitude, denial of the possibility of assaults, and the educational level and clinical experience of the staff may help provoke an assaultive episode. 3. An important step is assessing the assault to identify provocation due to certain medical causes, and to document the extent of degeneration in patients with dementia or organic brain disorder. Medical intervention would be indicated and would appropriately address the causes of some violent episodes.     

Labour migration and the work permit system in the United Kingdom

"The aim of this paper is to examine the effects of the work permit today [in the United Kingdom], using official data. It first reviews the operation of the [labor migration] system and describes the main schemes incorporated. Then, it uses data for 1984-88 to describe the general characteristics of labor immigration through the schemes. Finally, by means of a small random sample of applications and issues, it presents details on particular aspects of the immigration. It demonstrates that current labour immigration through the system is selective: most of those entering with long-term permits are highly skilled, well paid, and moving within the internal labor markets of large transnational corporations." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)