Consultants' forum: should post hoc sample size calculations be done?

Pre‐study sample size calculations for clinical trial research protocols are now mandatory. When an investigator is designing a study to compare the outcomes of an intervention, an essential step is the calculation of sample sizes that will allow a reasonable chance (power) of detecting a pre‐determined difference (effect size) in the outcome variable, at a given level of statistical significance. Frequently studies will recruit fewer patients than the initial pre‐study sample size calculation suggested. Investigators are faced with the fact that their study may be inadequately powered to detect the pre‐specified treatment effect and the statistical analysis of the collected outcome data may or may not report a statistically significant result. If the data produces a “non‐statistically significant result” then investigators are frequently tempted to ask the question “Given the actual final study size, what is the power of the study, now, to detect a treatment effect or difference?” The aim of this article is to debate whether or not it is desirable to answer this question and to undertake a power calculation, after the data have been collected and analysed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

契科夫笔下“小人物”的解构

契科夫是十九世纪俄国批判现实主义作家。他在作品中塑造了众多的“小人物”形象。这些“小人物”身上具有一些共性：人性的异化与思想的套子,而这些共性对于今天的我们具有警示作用。     

宋代与中国古代取保候审制度的形成

取保候审古称责保知在,是刑事司法中普遍采用的限制人身自由的强制方法,是借助于保证人的信誉约束诉讼参加人,以配合司法活动的诉讼保障措施.在中国古代史籍中,取保候审于北齐初见使用,<唐律疏议>亦有条文记栽,两宋时期形成制度.与前代相比,宋代取保候审的规定更加具体,其适用条件的详备程度已达到当今立法水平,甚至有些规定今世未能企及.宋代取保候审制度的完善,可为宋代司法制度发达的又一力证.     

十九世纪初期美国客邮述论

19世纪初期事关贸易成败的美国客邮是学界研究的空白。通过分析美国“太平洋商人号”商船在澳门修理期间发往广州的一批信件,证明了美国在广州客邮的关键环节：依托十三行商馆区后勤服务区秘密栖身,接收转发地址为广州十三行商馆区凿石街的泗兴办馆,办馆承担了邮局的收发邮政功能,澳门广州间的美国短途客邮具有独立运行的特点。这也为19世纪初期美国在华客邮提供了详实的个案。     

论近代上海民信局的兴衰

上海民信局产生后,逐步实现了上海境内由点到面的覆盖.五口通商后,上海商业渐趋繁荣,各地民信局争相在此设立总局或总办事处,上海遂成为全国民信局的总枢纽.上海民信局在基本业务和经营方式上与其他地区民信局并无二致,但具有鲜明的个性,如民信局数量居全国之冠,办理发行任务,业务范围拓展到了国外等;后国民信局自身的缺陷,以及邮政当局的排挤和压制,民信局逐渐走向衰亡.虽然以上海为首的全国民信局采取了请愿、行政诉讼等方式进行抵抗,但都以失败告终,上海民信局终究难逃罢废厄运.然而,民信局的热情服务理念以及民信局抱团、联合解决问题的方式在现在依然具有重要的现实借鉴意义.     

Nurture,bureaucracy and re-balancing the mind and heart

With increasing managerialism and bureaucratisation in the caring professions, where the focus of attention is directed primarily to the techno-rational, the instrumental and the impersonal, care becomes labour in the service of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. Relying on the work of psychodynamic theorists, the first part of this paper offers a critical analysis of selected 'snapshots of practice' demonstrating the costs of abdicating emotion and nurture in the care process. The second part of the paper describes an 18-month co-operative inquiry involving women practitioner/students in health, social care and education. The study highlights the quest for meaning and significance in learning and work and the process of re-balancing the mind and heart in the context of the bureaucratic organisation as one of heroic dimensions. Establishing a sustained community of care yielded a renewed sense of direction and creative action among participants.     

A state of limbo: the politics of waiting in neo‐liberal Latvia

This article presents an ethnographic study of politics of waiting in a post‐Soviet context. While activation has been explored in sociological and anthropological literature as a neo‐liberal governmental technology and its application in post‐socialist context has also been compellingly documented, waiting as a political artefact has only recently been receiving increased scholarly attention. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork at a state‐run unemployment office in Riga, this article shows how, alongside activation, state welfare policies also produce passivity and waiting. Engaging with the small but developing field of sociological literature on the politics of waiting, I argue that, rather than interpreting it as a clash between ‘neo‐liberal’ and ‘Soviet’ regimes, we should understand the double‐move of activation and imposition of waiting as a key mechanism of neo‐liberal biopolitics. This article thus extends the existing theorizations of the temporal politics of neo‐liberalism.     

晚清广州邮政电报肇兴刍论

晚清广州邮政三足鼎立,传统民信局?各国开设的“客邮”和大清邮政并存,但邮政管理统一是发展的必然趋势?肇兴于中外交涉频繁?战火连绵的晚清广州电报业,极大地提高了通信效率,得到了迅速发展?近代邮政在广州商民生活中得到了较为广泛的使用,伴随电报的开设而兴办的电报学堂是广州早期现代化成果的重要组成部分?梳理广州近代邮政电报的开设情况及其特点,有利于较为全面地了解近代邮政电报的兴办对晚清广州的政治?经济?文化?军事国防以及社会生活的影响?     

后战国时期自然合理性观念研究

所谓"自然合理性",主要就是指"天时","天时"是一个时间秩序问题.时间秩序就是用时间来控制和安排政治事务的制度.自然合理性就是考虑如何通过时间的调节来使政治运作吻合于自然规则.在后战国时期,时间与权力的制度性结合和观念性渗透呈现出某种转折性态势,从而在政治思想史上构成一个特殊的重要时期.因为一种前所未有的超级权力体系的出现,将时间引入政治实践才有了稳定的制度基础.     

经济史视角下的清末民初官方邮局与民信局之争

官方邮局与民信局为争夺邮政市场,在资费与业务等领域展开激烈竞争。为适应形势变化,民信局开始利用新式交通工具发展业务。民信局虽然通过请愿、走私等形式规避官邮控制,但还是走向衰落。民信局与官方邮局的竞争促使官方邮局更趋商业化。民信局积极利用轮船等新式交通工具,而大清邮局则积极学习民信局优点,拓展业务范围。