The cost benefits of providing community-based correctional services: An evaluation of a statewide parole program in California

This was a cost-benefit study of a statewide program involving multiple community-based services for parolees in California. Program effectiveness was assessed by comparing program costs to incarceration costs avoided due to decreases in recidivism. During the first year following parole release, program participants on average stayed out of prison longer than the comparison population. Participants who completed any of the community-based services stayed out of prison substantially longer. The reductions in re-incarceration yielded a net saving of $21 million in incarceration costs over the study period, after the costs of the program and parole supervision were subtracted, or a 47 percent net return on each program dollar invested. This study did not include potential cost savings to other parties in the justice system. These findings suggest future investments in community-based correctional services might produce substantial financial benefits. A fuller apprehension of the potential benefits would benefit from continuing evaluations, including studies employing a true experimental design.     

浅析奥巴马政府的对朝政策

在应对处理朝鲜半岛危机中,美国一直扮演着一个关键的角色。奥巴马上台后,朝鲜半岛危机出现了急剧的变化,这也让人们对奥巴马政府的对朝政策更加关注。实际上,在2009年春美国国务卿希拉里访问亚洲后,奥巴马政府的对朝政策就产生了很大的变化。朝鲜半岛不断升级的紧张局势,使得美国有机会重振其世界领袖的雄风,重新确立美日韩在东亚的铁三角同盟关系,并通过不断的联合军事演习对朝鲜施加了除军事动武以外的巨大压力,同时也侧面敲击和缓解了中国力量在亚太地区伸展的势头。奥巴马的外交理念是做一个实际的理想主义者和一个有理想的现实主义者,其对朝政策的核心策略就是软的更软,硬的更硬,以硬逼软。     

MNCV与正中神经损伤后肢体肌力变化的关系

目的初步研究运动神经传导速度(motornerveconductionvelocity,MNCV)检查相关指标与肌力(musclepower,MP)的关系,评测MNCV检查在神经损伤的法医学鉴定中的价值。方法以22例正中神经损伤病例为对象,进行MNCV和MP检查;另将22例健康受试者作为对照组,在同条件下进行检查。MNCV测定指标包括:远、近端潜伏期,远、近端波幅,MNCV值。测定前,由同一操作医师测定患者相应的MP(拇短展肌、拇短屈肌、拇指对掌肌)。结果患病组内,MP与MNCV和远近端波幅值存在显著相关性,而对照组内MP与其他指标无任何相关性;两组间对比,各项指标均存在明显差异。结论正中神经损伤后,手部相应肌肉的MP丧失程度与MNCV改变相关,并且MNCV各项指标发生显著改变。结果表明,MNCV检验可为神经损伤后MP丧失程度的法医学检查及其鉴定提供客观证据。     

Cuba''s Revolutionary Foreign Policy Concept

At the invitation of Cui Liru, President of China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Marcos Rodriguez Costa paid a visit to CICIR on November 13, 2006. Following are the contents of his speech in CICIR.     

The quasi-criminalization of a business sector in China

This study probes the institutional mechanisms and operational processes that have turned the Chinese construction sector into a quasi-criminal domain during the past two decades. On the basis of its exploratory investigation, the paper tries to make a few generalized empirical observations, which centre on the problem of institution-formation and order under the conditions of a systemic transition from command to market environments. This study is part of a major project on state-rebuilding in transitional China.     

The long march: the lessons of China's economic transition

It is widely known that Chinese transition to market economy was influenced by the newly industrialized Asian countries—Malaysia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong—but it is not as much evident that Chinese reform was also influenced by the economic reforms of Hungary. Hungary started market-oriented reforms in the late 1960s by introducing market-orientated measures in agriculture, in manufacturing, in retail trade, and in finances, which made Hungarian economy more flexible and efficient than other European socialist countries. It could be shown that the first market-oriented reform measures applied in China during the 1980s and 1990s have large similarities to the Hungarian reform introduced earlier. In that respect, we can say that Chinese economic reform has adapted lots of elements of the early Hungarian economic reform. At the same time, Hungarian reforms have died away, but after the “lost decade of the 1980s,” there was an extremely rapid transition to market economy, which—in spite of the seemingly successful beginning—could not contribute to a long-term and healthy economic development. Meanwhile in China, economic reform was rather successful, resulting in an unprecedented economic development at the end of the twentieth century. Authors of the present article analyse similarities of the Hungarian and Chinese reforms and try to explain the causes of the Hungarian failure and the Chinese success. “Let China Sleep, for when the Dragon awakes, she will shake the world.” The saying is attributed to Napoleon and he seems to have been right. Now that China has reversed the process of globalization and has become the winner, we should resignedly accept that China is wide awake. The country's economy has followed a rapid growth path thus China's economic dominance is felt in the entire Far East; moreover, the country with the highest population in the world the country is taking steps to emerge as a world power. The dragon is awake, and she is not going to take a great leap forward but instead it is now on the long march. In lieu of her specific tools, China is about to win: she is already one of the winners, if not the only winner of globalization.