Glucose and lactate in vitreous humor compared with the determination of fructosamine for the postmortem diagnosis of diabetes mellitus

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic illness responsible for a great number of deaths. In postmortem diagnosis, because of the difficulty involved in interpreting blood glucose levels and relatively nonspecific pathologic features, biochemical markers in vitreous humor are useful. The aim of this study was to compare the results obtained for the combined determination of lactate and glucose with fructosamine levels recorded in the vitreous humor of two diagnostic groups (one diabetic and the other nondiabetic). The authors intended to ascertain the capacity of different markers measured in vitreous humor to diagnose diabetes mellitus. Fifty-one cadavers (mean age, 58.7 years; standard deviation, 17.09) were studied. The mean postmortem interval was 16.4 hours (standard deviation, 9.05). Cases were assigned to two diagnostic groups according to whether they were previously diagnosed as either diabetic or nondiabetic. Statistically significant differences for glucose, fructosamine, and the sum values of glucose and lactate were found between the two diagnostic groups. The highest levels were obtained in the group of cases with a previous diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. After the comparison of receiver operating characteristic curves, the sum values of glucose and lactate in vitreous humor is a better predictor of antemortem diabetes mellitus than the fructosamine.     

A Call to Action—The Essential Role of Advocacy

Editor's Note: The Perspectives featured in this issue of Public Administration Review were adapted from May 2016 commencement addresses: Anna Maria Chavez, the CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA, spoke on the 12th at Arizona State University's College of Public Service and Community Solutions; Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Leader in the United States House of Representatives spoke on the 7th at New York University's Wagner School of Public Service; and Tommy Thompson, the former Governor of Wisconsin and Secretary of Health & Human Services, spoke on the 15th at the University of Wisconsin's La Follette School of Public Affairs. These Perspectives reaffirm the highest principles of American public administration: that by and large, government is NOT the problem, and quite often indeed holds the solution; that effective and helpful public policy depends on informed expert opinion and research; and that those who enter public service should do so with a commitment to the notion that America best fulfills its promise when we seek the well‐being of all people, including the least fortunate. We chose these messages from among a wealth of commencement speeches because while they come from leaders with quite different political views, background, and experience, taken together they offer a coherent and inspiring call to public service. Dan Feldman, Perspective and Commentary Editor     

A Kinder,Gentler Democracy? The Consensus Model and Swedish Disability Politics

Arend Lijphart's seminal consensus model of democracy does not only try to explain how democracy actually works. It also purports to be a ‘kinder, gentler’ form of democracy with regard to e.g. unemployment, disability, illness and old age. So far, this conjecture has not been brought to a systematic test which is the purpose of this article. We look into the consequences for one of the areas Lijphart singles out: disability. Does consensus democracy promote a more generous policy towards disabled people than majoritarian democracy? We transfer Lijphart's theory to municipality level. In Sweden, disability care is namely the responsibility for the municipalities, which are comparatively large and independent and with the right to tax their citizens; they are like small nation‐states. There is, however, a considerable variation in disability support between them. Some give ten times as much support than others. Is it those governed according to the consensus model? Our approach helps controlling for the variation in political and cultural context and expands the number of observations. The statistical comparison of Swedish municipalities does not, however, lend any confirmation of the famous theory. Instead, there are reasons to doubt that consensus democracy promotes more generous policies.     

论农村的人情规则模式——以浙东税务场村为经验基础的框架理解

本文的立意在于发现一种不同于人情功能模式的人情规则模式。人情的社会功能与村庄公共性相连，而人情规则与个体性密不可分。笔者认为，人情规则是理解当今农村社会人情现象和村庄社会结构的基础。以浙东农村的社会经验为基础，笔者详细论述了人情中个人主体性的呈现、“请”的机制、人情与社会分化的互动。人情中的个人主体性是理解人情规则和其他人情现象的基础，人情规则是核心，社会分化是与现今人情规则相适应的社会结构特征。