THE DIFFUSION OF MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY: SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS AND POLICY RESEARCH

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how social network analysis can be used to provide information for policy decisions pertaining to physicians' adoption and utilization of new medical technology. Interviews and hospital records were used to obtain data on refenals, consultations, discussions, and on-call coverage; utilization of a computer-based hospital information system; and personal and practice characteristics from 24 physicians who belong to a private group practice. The results of a block-model analysis suggest that the physician's relative position in the network is an important determinant of his/her participation in the diffusion process. A number of policy implications related to the introduction of new medical technology into practice settings are discussed.     

Contradictions of state socialism: the case of Poland*

This article originates from an invitation to give a paper at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw m the Autumn of 1980. As then drafted, the paper consisted mainly of a discussion of the writings of selected Polish and British sociologists on the structure and workings of contemporary state-socialist societies, and it was my intention to revise it for submission to the Sociological Review as a sequel to, and commentary on, the article by Christopher G.A. Bryant published in the issue of February, 1980.¹ On return from Warsaw, I decided against doing so for two reasons: first, it seemed to me that the writings which I had taken as my starting-point were too remote from the actual course of events in Poland; second, I did not see how I could use the many informative conversations about those events which I had had with Polish sociologists and others in an academic journal article. On further reflection, however, I do not believe that either of these reasons should prevent my attempting to set out and justify my view of the implications for sociological theory of the Polish case, even though it is based in part on non-documentary sources and (more seriously) I lack the knowledge of the language which would give me direct access to the documentary ones. In what follows, accordingly, I first outline the framework within which the forms and distribution of power in state-socialist societies in general and Poland in particular can, in my view, best be analysed; I then set out in slightly more detail what I see as the reasons why events in Poland between 1956 and 1981 followed the course they did; and I conclude with a brief discussion of what I believe to be the principal weakness in the recent British sociological literature on state socialism insofar as it relates to the Polish case.     

"五四"东西文化论战新探

围绕传统文化在现代的价值功能,五四新文化主流派与文化保守主义者展开了一场大论战。这场论战大致分为三个阶段。文化保守主义的代表分别为杜亚泉、章士钊、张君劢以及学衡派等,他们对新文化主流派的激烈反传统进行了回应。论争展示了两种不同类型的文化改造策略,是五四文化生态圈保持平衡的对立互补两极。     

Structural constraints and the publications dilemma: A review and some proposals

There is a critical shortage of publication space available to sociologists, compared to scholars in other fields. This results in invidious publication comparisons to other professionals and damage to the careers of younger sociologists. Further, it results in a loss to the field itself in terms of a lesser likelihood of publication of replications, challenges, and controversial or unorthodox works. Several proposals are made for increasing the publication potential of sociologists. His teaching and research interests have been in social psychology (especially alienation), the family, and the sociology of religion.     

Uniting the nation? disability,stem cells,and the australian media

In this article, the 2002 Australian debate regarding embryonic stem cells is examined. This shows the importance of an analysis of the media to understanding how disability is constructed in discourses of nationhood and biotechnology. Media representation of disability—for instance, signifying disability as catastrophe—is seen as crucial in securing access to a variety of biotechnologies, such as embryonic stem cells. Analysis of such media moments shows a structure of privileged and excluded voices in debates regarding disability and biotechnology. The diversity of voices in the Australian community regarding disability is not represented in a range of media, nor are people with disability quoted as experts on disability. A recognition of the media's construction of disability must be matched by a commitment to disability as part of a truly civil society. It is only in this way that we will have biotechnologies, and diverse cultural and media representations that meet the requirements of the international disability rights movement motto of 'nothing about us without us', recently emphasized in the Disabled Peoples' International Europe's 2000 statement on biotechnology.     

DISTRIBUTIONAL INCENTIVES IN AN EQUILIBRIUM MODEL OF DOMESTIC SOVEREIGN DEFAULT

Europe's debt crisis resembles historical episodes of outright default on domestic public debt about which little research exists. This paper proposes a theory of domestic sovereign default based on distributional incentives affecting the welfare of risk‐averse debt and nondebtholders. A utilitarian government cannot sustain debt if default is costless. If default is costly, debt with default risk is sustainable, and debt falls as the concentration of debt ownership rises. A government favoring bond holders can also sustain debt, with debt rising as ownership becomes more concentrated. These results are robust to adding foreign investors, redistributive taxes, or a second asset.     

法治视阈下地方国有企业分类改革方案分析

2014年是全面落实党的十八届三中全会改革规划的开局之年,各地密集出台了地方版的国有企业和国有资产改革方案。方案中一些新的制度设计意在解决国企改革中的积弊,法治已然成为实现国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的现实路径,但地方国企改革方案又存在着法治思维不足的缺陷。弥补这些不足,将国有企业和国资管理改革纳入法治的轨道具有重要意义。     

全国人大常委会委员长会议的扩权现象研究

全国人大常委会委员长会议,自改革开放30年来,对全国人大常委会的工作起到了一定的正面推动作用,一定程度上满足了中国社会平稳过渡的时代需求。但在法治中国建设的背景下,要坚持和完善人民代表大会制度,面对委员长会议的扩权现状——对常委会有明显的领导性,几乎成为常委会的领导机关,不时超越权限代替常委会作出决定——有必要分析原因,限制委员长会议权力,改进人大制度。出现委员长会议不断扩权的原因可以概括为一方面没有厘清委员长会议制度建立的初衷,另一方面是由于行政集权意识的影响根深蒂固。据此可知,要将委员长会议的权力"还权于会"(常委会),需要很多配套工作,如加强常委会能力,延长常委会的开会时间,真正落实自下而上的民主选择等。     

基于GIS铁路网络运营管理和分析系统

随着地理信息系统发展,海量数据的读取和存储得以空间化。以地理信息系统为平台,以铁路运营网络与空间地理信息为基础,实现高效的铁路运营管理决策系统。以2013年4月19日的铁路运营图为基础,共采集2 614个普通车站,161个高铁车站和58个综合车站的空间信息,3 065条铁路网络物理空间信息,83 903条普通铁路运营网络和4 085条高速铁路运营网络空间信息,构建铁路网络GIS平台,并以SQL Server2005进行数据管理,应用Visual C#和SuperMap Objects进行系统开发,实现数据的存储、读取、更新及计算等功能。