Involving constituents in agency priority setting: a case study

Many government agencies have "constituents" who believe the agencies should hear and consider their needs and desires in establishing program priorities. This article describes how one involves interested constituents (consumers, industry, medical professionals, and state organizations) in the agency's annual priority-setting process. This participation has produced a number of beneficial results-some expected and some unexpected.     

Size and duration of empires growth-decline curves, 3000 to 600 b.c.

Area changes of about 30 best known empires and states are compiled and tabulated. Superimposed and juxtaposed graphs (size versus time) help to visualize the relative size and location in time of these empires. Size-time integral, maximum stable size, adulthood date, and duration are defined operationally and are listed for 20 empires. A criterion is given for distinctness of successive empires. The size-time integral is a direct measure of an empire's impact on history insofar as that impact depends on sheer size and duration. The integral is largest for the Chinese Hsia-Shang, Egyptian New, Old, and Middle, Assyrian New, and Hittite empires. A world-wide territorial concentration index is tabulated. It increases during the period considered from 0.08 to 1.4% of the world dry land area.     

Commodity price stabilization models: A review and appraisal

This paper is designed to bring into focus the numerous modeling attempts to analyze commodity price stabilization that have recently appeared. The studies examined begin with the Waugh-Oi-Massell framework and advance to econometric commodity modeling. Such a critique is considered necessary: None of the studies examined has overcome the myriad of problems that analysts have pointed out as essential for assessing the welfare outcomes of price stabilization schemes. As a consequence, stabilization analyses for similar commodities have produced conflicting results regarding predicted welfare outcome. The present appraisal attempts to provide a unity of direction to this work by (1) comparing recieved studies of a theoretical, empirical, and econometric modeling nature, and (2) suggesting possibilities for improving modeling analyses.     

Size and duration of empires: Systematics of size

Areas of the world's three largest empires or states at any given time are listed at 100- or 50-year intervals, from 3000 b.c. on. Area measurement definitions and techniques are described. Major empire size has tended to increase, approaching the world's dry earth area in an approximately logistic way. This pattern suggests that a world state is still many centuries away. Sudden increases in empire size have occurred around 2800 b.c. due to emergence of cities, around 600 b.c. due to a power delegation breakthrough, and around 1600 a.d. due to a communication speed revolution. A graph of the world's largest empire areas throughout times offers somewhat novel perspectives on world history, making one realize the Western bias of many “world history” texts. Areas of 20 largest states that ever existed are listed. Subsequent papers will deal with historical periods in more detail.     

"化境"背后:钱钟书的文本价值论

钱钟书在讨论翻译问题时所采取的是观察家角度,他提出“化境”的本意并不在于为翻译行为设定唯一正确的标准;他认为翻译理论与翻译实践可以分离,翻译在目的语文化语境中起着重要作用。从钱钟书暗喻的文本价值论来看,可以推断出他对文本竞争和语言竞争的提倡。     

宽阔视野中的鲁迅研究--读刘正强教授《管窥蠡测录》

《管窥蠡测录》是刘正强教授一生学术研究的总结。书中的大部分篇章是研究鲁迅的成果,这些成果显示出作者深厚的学养、宽阔的视野和深刻的思想,决定了作者作为鲁迅研究之一家的地位。刘正强教授获得成功的秘诀是运用政治、美学和哲学思想研究鲁迅。     

Comments on Montague J. Lord's “distributional effects of international commodity price stabilization: Do the aggregate gains apply to individual producing countries?” [JPM 3:61–75 (1981)]

Lord discusses the impact of international commodity price stabilization on Latin American producing country export revenues. He correctly emphasizes that the directions and magnitudes of such effects may vary substantially across producers, depending on the degree of segmentation of the commodity markets and the nature and distribution of the shocks. However his potential contribution may be lost because of a number of inaccuracies, which I discuss under three general topics.     

A comparison of objective and subjective measures of clinical competence

The purpose of this study was to determine if objective performance measures from a simulated patient practical examination were related to faculty subjective assessments of surgery students' performance. Another purpose was to determine if those students performing well on a simulated patient practical examination were the same students awarded honor ratings by faculty. Faculty ratings of students (n = 72) on history taking ability, physical exam skills, problem identification, use of investigations, problem integration, patient management, and patient relations skills were correlated with objective measures on these same criteria achieved on a practical exam employing three simulated patient cases. Correlations were also calculated to study the relationship between practical exam scores and honor rating recipients. Results indicated significant relationships between faculty subjective ratings and practical exam outcomes on all practical examination skills except physical exam skills and patient management skills. Findings also indicated the performance of honor students on the practical examination was significantly better than non-honor students on two skills: history-taking and patient relations. The implications of these research findings are discussed.     

Response from a policymakers' perspective

The case in point (Tellado, 1984) needs to be defined in terms of a client for the research. The research may also have implications for early intervention to mitigate the problems uncovered in the case study. An important element in the development of problem-solving skills may be linguistic skills. Further research about this variable seems warranted.     

North-South relations: Alternative policy simulations for the world economy in the 1980s

This article makes projections of the world economy in the North-South context for the period 1981–1990 using a latest global version of a macroeconomic model named FUGI-GNEM type IV 011–62. The model classifies the world into 62 countries/regions, where the North-South interdependence is incorporated into an integral part of the world economy through international economic linkages. Based on alternative simulations, the author presents future images of the North-South interdependent world economy through changes in economic growth rates, employment, wages, prices, money supply, interest rates, public finance, trade, capital movement, international balance of payments, foreign exchange rates, etc., in each country or region. The model forecasts that the real economic growth of the developing countries as a whole in the 1980s will likely be around 4%–7% annual rate according to alternative policy scenarios.