Assisted suicide and professional responsibilities

He is co-author of Clinical Ethics: A Practical Approach to Ethical Decisions in Clinical Medicine; The Insanity Plea: The Uses and Abuses of the Insanity Defense;and Choosing Life and Death.He is a fellow of the Hastings Center.     

Extremism, suicide terror, and authoritarianism

This paper studies extremist behaviour, and its connection to authoritarianism. I divide extremists into two groups, leaders, who demand extremist acts such as assassinations, suicide terror or other forms of political violence from followers, who supply them. I assume that both the leaders of extremist groups and their followers are rational. The paper looks at three examples: Communism, Nationalism and Islamic Fundamentalism. I show that leaders with extreme ideologies also tend to adopt violent methods when there is an indivisibility between the intermediate goal of the group and its ultimate goal. Turning to followers, the most important innovation of the paper is a simple model which explains how it is possible for a person to rationally commit suicide to further the goals of a group. The most important policy implications of the paper are, firstly, that one should look at the goals of extremist group in order to understand their actions. If one can un-bundle the goal or make the indivisible divisible, then there may be ways to provide these goals in a way which satisfies some of the potential supporters of the group and thus dries up support for the grander ambitions of the leaders of extremist groups. Secondly, the provision of programs which foster social cohesion tends to dry up an important motive for extremist activity: the desire for solidarity. Thirdly, policy towards terrorists should combine the use of “carrot” and “stick”. Finally, I argue that authoritarian regimes rather than democracies or totalitarian regimes are the most likely sources of suicide terror. So democracy is indeed part of the solution to the problem of suicide terrorism.     

Anti-depressants, suicide, and drug regulation.

Policymakers are increasingly concerned that a relatively new class of anti-depressant drugs, selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI), may increase the risk of suicide for at least some patients, particularly children. Prior randomized trials are not informative on this question because of small sample sizes and other limitations. Using variation across countries over time in SSRI sales and suicide, we find that an increase of one pill per capita (a 13 percent increase over 1999 levels) is associated with a 2.5 percent reduction in suicide rates, a relationship that is more pronounced for adults than for children. Our findings suggest that expanding access to SSRIs for adults may be a cost-effective way to save lives, although policymakers are right to remain cautious about pediatric use of SSRIs.     

浅谈机器视觉的应用

用信息化带动工业化,就是要用先进的技术来武装传统产业.我国工业面临着产业结构的调整.国内工业自动化技术终归要和国际接轨.自动化企业正在倡导软硬一体化解决方案,于是在国内机器视觉悄悄兴起.随着信息技术不断进步,机器视觉将在自动化领域占据主导地位.     

A framework for regulating automated teller machine technology

This article specifies and estimates a logit model of ATM adoption by commercial banks. The model provides evidence that permissive sharing laws increase the odds of adoption, which suggests that the antitrust laws may impede the efficient diffusion of the technology. The model also provides evidence that mandatory access laws decrease the odds of adoption for small banks. This suggests that the benefit of such laws in terms of promoting competition in the banking market may be offset by the cost of slower technological diffusion. Finally the model provides evidence that banking markets overlap to a varying degree, which implies that banks compete on the dimensions of price and location. This evidence suggests that mandatory access laws are a more appropriate policy tool when competing banks provide services at similar locations, and permissive sharing laws are more appropriate when competing banks are differentiated by location.     

Heavy alcohol use and youth suicide: Evidence from tougher drunk driving laws

This paper uses the widespread variation across states in the timing of adoption of tougher drunk driving laws that set very low legal blood alcohol limits for drivers under age 21—“zero tolerance” (ZT) laws—to provide new evidence on the causal effect of alcohol use on youth suicide. ZT laws reduced heavy episodic drinking by underage men, with no effect for slightly older males. I estimate the reduced form effect of ZT policy adoption on suicide deaths among 15–17‐, 18–20‐, 21–24‐, and 25–29‐year‐old males and females for the period 1981–1998. The models control for macroeconomic conditions, demographic changes, other alcohol control policies, state and year fixed effects, and smooth state trends. Results indicate statistically significant reductions in suicide among young males aged 15–17 and 18–20 associated with adoption of ZT laws on the order of 7 to 10 percent. I find no effects for slightly older males who were unaffected by the tougher drunk driving laws, and no consistent effects for females. These results provide new and compelling evidence that heavy alcohol use causes young male suicide. © 2004 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

多媒体教学中人机关系的哲学思考

多媒体计算机应用于教育领域,给传统的教学活动带来了新的挑战,它打破了传统教学中所结成的人（教师）与人（学生）的单一交流模式,取而代之以新型的人（教师）-机-人（学生）的双向交互模式,而在这一模式中,人与机究竟形成了怎样的关系？本文欲从哲学视角进行阐述,以期更好地协调人机关系,促进教学改革。     

Who controls the machine,revisited: command and control in the United Nations reform effort

Revisiting an analysis done ten years ago during one of the periodic efforts to reform the United Nations, the article suggests that the problem of control and accountability of the programming and budgeting process of the United Nations has not yet been resolved. Noting that the existing process does not allow for major changes in programmes and priorities and that it does not give the Secretary-General or the Member States a means for determining the organization's effectiveness, it argues for a new approach to command and control based on a service-delivery approach and adjustment of existing institutions. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

任务驱动教学法在数控机床及其编程课程一体化模式教学中的探索与实践

随着我国机械行业迅速发展,高职数控专业遇到了前所未有的发展机遇。在新的经济形式下,高职教育要求学生具有一定理论知识水平的同时更加注重学生实践应用综合能力的增强。通过作者长期以来对数控机床及其编程课程一体化模式教学的实践,尤其对任务驱动教学法在教学过程中的应用和探索进行分析和总结,对有效提高教学效果具有一定的积极意义,同时较好的促进了学生实践应用综合能力的增强。     

The Media, The Campaign, and The Message

This article examines the 1996 press releases issued by Republican presidential nominee candidates during the invisible primary and the subsequent stories generated by these press releases in newspapers. We systematically examine how campaigns structure their messages, which messages are transmitted by the press to the voting public, and what factors influence the transmission of the campaign's message. We find that campaign organizations disseminate a variety of messages to the media. Our analysis demonstrates that national media organizations are most receptive to informative (logistical) messages disseminated by candidates who are at the head of the field and most hostile to substantive (issue-oriented) messages regardless of their campaign of origin. By contrast, the state press is most open to substantive messages issued by lower-tier candidates. It appears from our results that the media, more than the campaign, bear the responsibility for the emphasis on the horse race.     

The consents of The Calculus

I study a game where two agents bargain on an agreement to replace the status quo. For their agreement to come into effect, they need the approval of a third agent. The preferences of this third agent is private information, but there is communication among agents. I study this game in the context of international agreements to provide an explanation for involuntary ratification failures. I show that under certain assumptions, the informational deficiency is incurable due to incentives to misrepresent preferences, and that a parliament whose majority is more hawkish than their executive prefers the executive to be risk averse.