Medicare and Amyloid PET Imaging: The Battle Over Evidence

We examine a recent dispute regarding the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) refusal to unconditionally pay for amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) imaging for Medicare beneficiaries being assessed for Alzheimer’s disease. CMS will only pay for amyloid PET imaging when patients are enrolled in clinical trials that meet certain criteria. The dispute reflects CMS’s willingness in certain circumstances to require effectiveness evidence that differs from the Food and Drug Administration’s standard for pre-market approval of a medical intervention and reveals how stakeholders with differing perspectives about evidentiary standards have played a role in attempting to shape the Medicare program’s coverage policies.     

Wang Ming-hui and Blacklist Production: the Third World/Asia turn of Taiwan’s new music production

ABSTRACT

The paper discusses the music group ‘Blacklist Production’ (also known as Blacklist Studio) that was established in the late 1980s when the Martial Law was lifted in Taiwan, and the group’s original works of music. It investigates the music composition and thinking process of Wang Ming-hui, the founder of Blacklist Production, and analyses two albums produced by the music studio, Songs of Madness (1989) and Lullaby (1996), as a way of reconsidering and reflecting the feeling process and limitations of the nativist ideology from 1989 to 1996 that took shape in Taiwan’s society. In addition, the paper also explores Wang’s musical practices through which he has tried to answer the question of ‘how to express thoughts with music’. Through the historical analysis of musical works and interviews with Wang Ming-hui, the paper suggests that ‘Taiwan’s New Music Production’ brought up and practiced by Wang and Blacklist Production is embedded with the possibility for Taiwan’s culture and imagination of modernity to ‘turn’ the referent point to the Third World/Asia.     

‘Nothing about us without us’: the emerging disability movement and advocacy in China

The disability movement and disabled persons’ self-help organizations (DPOs) are emerging in China, some of which succeeded in promoting policy and social changes with special strategies. Based on an original survey and interview, this article explains the development and survival strategies of China’s DPOs, and especially interprets some successful cases of social advocacy and policy advocacy in the emerging disability movement. It is hoped that scholars will pay more attention to the advocacy and public engagement of the disability community in non-western settings in the future.     

‘A person with some sort of learning disability’: the aetiological narrative and public construction of Susan Boyle

Susan Boyle’s audition for the television talent competition Britain’s Got Talent attracted global attention and widespread media discourse. In this article, I would like to examine this discourse to consider how Boyle’s success troubles conventional constructions of both learning disability and celebrity.

I extend Ciara Evans’s recognition that learning disability is invisible to reflect on the media responses to Boyle’s impairment. This reflection notes that even within Boyle’s own discourse, she is loosely positioned as having ‘some sort of learning disability’.

Detailed attention is given to the aetiological account of the ‘brain damage’ Boyle ‘suffered’ at birth. The analysis will consider the correlation with scientific discourse, trauma theory and the imposed biography to suggest that the construction of Boyle as both contained and unpredictable is already implicit in the aetiological narrative.     

中国发展的政治基础——以人民民主为中心的考察

中国发展离不开中国政治在其中的作用。在中国的政治逻辑中,人民民主既是国家的形态,也是国家的目标。它多维度地定义和规范着国家的结构、运行与发展,从而使中国的国家与社会生活既遵循民主与现代化要求,又遵循中国的自我意志。只要中国能够在现有的制度框架下,以人民民主为取向,时刻保持政治与经济的有机互动,自觉地进行政治建设,推进民主发展,中国的未来发展不仅不会引发政治问题,相反还能从中国独特的政治体系中获得有效的动力和保障。原因在于:一是中国的经济与社会发展已完全迈入现代化的轨道,已成为一种不可逆的发展;二是中国的政治体系具有现代性,而且其本质上是开放的,因而具有很强的适应性和发展性,否则,中国是不可能创造今天这样的发展局面的。     

WTO透明度原则法律适用研究

WTO的透明度原则作为WTO的基本原则之一,不仅蕴含在多边贸易体制之内,同时也贯穿于WTO各成员的承诺之中。WTO"争端解决机制"和"贸易政策审议机制"是检验透明度义务履行的两套重要机制。尽管入世后的三次WTO贸易政策审议报告对中国贸易政策透明度的改进给予了肯定,但是中国政府在透明度方面仍需改善,潜在的贸易纠纷依然存在。本文从WTO贸易政策评审机构的视角,结合WTO透明度原则理论分析,评析中国贸易政策透明度的改进,力求客观全面地认识这一原则的内涵和中国自身的实践与完善目标。     

朱元璋后期诗作对明朝诗坛的影响

朱元璋的诗歌创作可以登基为界,分为前期和后期两个阶段。前期诗作,粗豪霸气,威风凛凛,直有干云之势;后期诗作,雍容雅致,功利实用,几无风格可言。在朱元璋看来,大明诗歌应该成为与大明开国气象相契合的粉饰太平的工具。为达到这一目的,朱元璋身体力行、垂范作则,大量雍雅、实用之作在朱元璋的后期诗作中接踵涌现。这些诗作,不仅直接左右和控制了明初及明朝前期诗坛,也影响乃至笼罩了整个明朝诗坛。     

写文章要说老实话

作为一个知识分子不要忘了抚养、教育自己的工农和广大人民群众的恩情,做到这一点最重要的是在发表言论时态度纯正,不说假话空话,而说真话实话.朱健国先生把自己的希望强加给武汉大学的纪念活动.其后果是,挑拨了武大和《人民日报》之间的关系,是不利于社会和谐的.“弃苏投美”的提法,“弃苏”我是能够认可的,但我不能认可“投美”的提法.朱先生文中还有些论点不严谨、不科学.总之,他的这篇文章讲的不是、至少不完全是实话真话.     

从认知史角度比较荷马史诗与《俄狄浦斯王》中的卜释质疑

卜者对神的兆示的解释在东方和西方的古代社会都曾发挥过重要的作用,但古希腊文学中对卜释的不断质疑却构成了希腊文化独特的一面,并最终在一定程度上模塑了西方文化精神。从荷马史诗到《俄狄浦斯王》,其中的连续质疑之声中折射出西方认知史早期发展的独特轨迹。其中,《俄狄浦斯王》在西方认知发展史上具有一定的标示性意义。     

《论语》中的“勇”与子路“好勇”

君子“三达德”中的“知”、“仁”、“勇”是一个有机整体.其中,“知”即理智,“仁”属于情感,两者都需要通过一定的意志品格(“勇”)来实现.“勇”不同于“好勇”.君子之“勇”,以“义”为质,以“礼”为节,统摄于“仁”,行已有“耻”,是一种以道德理性为内涵的意志品格.