Expertization of Everyone and the Revolt of the Client*†

American society is witnessing a dramatic explosion and dissemination of knowledge, accompanied by the increasing refusal of patients, customers, students, and other types of clients to passively receive the services of the expert in any body of knowledge or skill. There has been an expansive growth of occupational experts and a demand on the part of clients for a change in the relation. Knowledge monopolization is decreasingly possible due to the activities of mass communication and of the literate public, and clients are becoming varied in the amount of knowledge with which they turn to the expert. Thus, while the political and economic groups are increasingly depending on the expert elite for plans and programs, the members at all levels of society are demanding rights of decision making.     

Prosperity-Enhancing Institutions: Towards a Comprehensive Composite Index

Institutions that potentially have a positive impact on economic performance rarely exist outside of a system of institutions; rather they are embedded in the institutional order of a country. It is thus imperative to investigate the composition of such prosperity-enhancing institutional orders. This paper proposes a measurement of bundles of institutions that channel the positive effect of democratic institutions on economic prosperity. We construct composite sub-indices measuring the political, economic and societal institutional quality as well as an overall index combining these bundles of institutions. Index data is available for 148 countries between 1995 and 2010. We obtain scores summarizing the level of prosperity-enhancing institutions that the respective countries exhibit with regard to their overall institutional setting and to the three bundles of institutions, and we grade the countries accordingly. Since the indices allow for inter-temporal comparisons, we can highlight a country’s achievements in institutional development, amongst other aspects of country comparisons, and we show their value as a tool in the analysis of determinants of economic prosperity. The proposed indices are a step towards a more systematic international comparison of democratic institutional settings.     

“Did I just do that?”—Six-month-olds learn the contingency between their vocalizations and a visual reward in 5 minutes

It has been shown that infants can increase or modify a motorically available behavior such as sucking, kicking, arm waving, etc., in response to a positive visual reinforcement (e.g., DeCasper & Fifer, 1980; Millar, 1990; Rochat & Striano, 1999; Rovee-Collier, 1997; Watson & Ramey, 1972). We tested infants to determine if they would also change their vocal behavior in response to contingent feedback, which lacks the social, emotional, and auditory modeling typical of parent-child interaction. Here, we show that in a single five-minute session infants increase the rate of their vocalizations in order to control the appearance of colorful shapes on an iPad screen. This is the first experimental study to demonstrate that infants can rapidly learn to increase their vocalizations, when given positive reinforcement with no social element. This work sets the foundations for future studies into the causal relationship between the number of early vocalizations and the onset of words. In addition, there are potential clinical applications for reinforcing vocal practice in infant populations who are at risk for poor language skills.     

BP initial image repair strategies after the Deepwater Horizon spill

The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded on April 20, 2010 off the coast of Louisiana, and the ensuing oil spill caused substantial economic and environmental damage to states on the U.S. Gulf Coast. British Petroleum received strong public criticism for its role in the disaster and quickly attempted image repair strategies. These strategies centered on describing what they were doing to correct the problem and compensate the victims, but did not include strategies such as shifting the blame to the other companies involved nor admitting their own blame. This study applies Benoit's work in Image Repair to a content analysis of the press releases from British Petroleum in the initial aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon spill. We also note the difficulty of using this theory to capture the nuances of responses.     

Governance in Regional Development—Between Regulation and Self-regulation

This article examines the relationship between regulation and self-regulation in network governance. The comparative analysis is based on quantitative data collected in regional development networks in the Nordic countries. The theoretical debate, in which this analysis is embedded, focuses on the paradox in the way the relationship between regulation and self-regulation is described in network governance approach; the networks are seen to be self-organising, and yet the steering role of governmental bodies is emphasised. The results indicate that regulation and self-regulation are more than counterforces: they can coexist and affect the operations of the networks simultaneously.     

采用脉冲火焰光度检测器进行丙烯中含硫化合物的气相色谱分析

在气相色谱分析中采用Agilent J&W低硫选择性色谱柱及硫特异性检测器如脉冲火焰光度检测器(PFPD),可将含硫化合物从基质中高效地分离出来,因而可对丙烯基质中痕量H2S,COS与CH3SH进行检测。将含硫化合物从基质中分离出来再检测,可避免基质引起的抑制效应并提高含硫化合物的响应。该色谱柱为活性含硫化合物如H2S提供了较好的响应,使含量低至20ppb的检测成为可能。尽管这是一种多孔层开管柱(PLOT),但它不会出现颗粒物质脱落现象,色谱图无锐峰。因此,与阀结合使用是安全的。     

Postmodernization: A Phase We're Going Through? Management in Social Care

This paper considers the challenges facing managers of socialcare services in public sector organizations in the UK. Sometheorists might argue that these challenges are the manifestationof a new postmodern era. It is argued here, however, that societyis not fully postmodern: indeed modernity continues with someof its features (such as a concern with rationality and reason)heightened and intensified. Social trends associated with thistransitional phase of postmodernization have been highlightedin the literature and here they form the framework for discussingsocial care management today.     

Science-Based Trade Disputes: A New Challenge in Harmonizing the Evidentiary Systems of Law and Science

In November 2001, the University of Michigan hosted one of the first dialogues among international trade law scholars and scientists in the field of risk assessment with the goal of identifying critical areas of misunderstanding between the two fields. This article discusses key issues that need to be addressed in order to better harmonize the scientific and legal systems of evidence within the context of trade disputes and trade law and presents the recommendations that emerged from the Michigan meeting.     

Validation of a longitudinally measured surrogate marker for a time-to-event endpoint

The objective of this paper is to extend the surrogate endpoint validation methodology proposed by Buyse et al. (2000) to the case of a longitudinally measured surrogate marker when the endpoint of interest is time to some key clinical event. A joint model for longitudinal and event time data is required. To this end, the model formulation of Henderson et al. (2000) is adopted. The methodology is applied to a set of two randomized clinical trials in advanced prostate cancer to evaluate the usefulness of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level as a surrogate for survival.