Trade union behaviour and inter-regional variations in unemployment rates

An important problem in the political economy of the UK is that the disparity of unemployment rates across its regions is much more marked than the corresponding dispersion of wage rates. One possibility is that this is due to the attitude of trade unions to their members in different regions. If unions wish to preserve parity between members in different regions then they will value wage equality between regions over and above wage levels. This may then persuade them to overlook inter-regional productivity differences in setting wages. The price that low-efficiency regions will then pay for this desire for wage equality is higher unemployment rates.Much of the research for this paper was carried out while the author was visiting the Trade Union Economics Research Institute (FIEF), Stockholm in 1989. An earlier version of this paper was presented at a seminar there and the author is gratefully to Villy Bergstrom, Paul Chen, Douglas Hibbs, Eva Udden-Jondal and other institute members for several useful comments. Comments from Kevin Lee, John Spencer and an anonymous referee have also substantially improved the paper. The usual disclaimer applies.     

数字化技术对党校图书馆建设的影响

随着党校数字图书馆工程建设的发展,全国党校图书馆将不可避免进入数字化。本文从不同角度探讨了数字化技术对党校传统图书馆的影响以及如何应对和适应数字化技术所带来的变化。     

Dissecting intramural haematoma of the coronary artery with intimal tears.

A dissecting intramural haematoma of the coronary artery is an infrequent cause of sudden and unexpected death. Most cases are women and in a significant number of these women, the haematoma occurred at term to 80 days postpartum. Because the intimal rupture and communication with the lumen were not found in most of the cases, the site of rupture has been considered to be a vasa vasorum. The authors report on a case of one woman who was at a later postpartum period (106 days). The microscopic finding of the dissected coronary artery revealed two intimal tears in a section. The case showed that the dissecting intramural haematoma of the coronary artery is caused not only by the rupture of the vasa vasorum but also by the rupture of the intima.     

Are disturbed and normal adolescents equally competent to make decisions about mental health treatments?

This study uses a structured vignette procedure to assess competency to make treatment decisions in two groups of adolescents, one at risk for institutional placement and the other a matched community sample. Scores on Factual Understanding (the ability to recall facts), Inferential Understanding (the ability to make inferences about those facts), and Reasoning (the ability to weigh risks and benefits of various treatment options and to make choices based on that reasoning) were compared. Results showed that while at-risk adolescents and their community, counterparts did not differ in their factual and inferential understanding abilities, the at-risk adolescents did significantly less well than the community adolescents in reasoning. This difference could not be fully explained by differences in verbal IQ. Girls, no matter what their risk status, scored higher than boys on the Reasoning scale. Implications for legal policies concerning adolescents are discussed.     

严格执法是净化文化市场的有效途径——浅谈乌鲁木齐市文化市场执法不严的成因及对策

文化市场对我们来说确实是古老而又新鲜的课题。说它古老是因为它古来就有,从汉代开始就有杂技、弹唱、卖艺的。说它新鲜,又确实是党的十一届三中全会以来,在我国改革开放中涌现出来的,在短短的二十几年时间里,我国经济发生了翻天覆地的变化,整个社会市场得到了充分的开放,作为社会主义市场组成部分之一的文化市场,在改革开放浪潮的推动下,不仅满足了广大人民群众日益增长的文化娱乐消费的需求,而且还带动了文化产业的发展,这些以满足人们精神文化需要为主要目标而进行生产或服务的行业也取得了巨大的经济效益,并且以其独特的功能——宣传党的各项方针政策,宣传社会主义理想、道德、文化、纪律,提高整个中华民族的思想道德素质和科学文化素质,在社会主义精神文明建设中有特殊的地位,并起着举     

Children in the environment: Forest day-care centers: Modern day care with historical antecedents

Some features of early child care are more prominent in Norway than in other countries, such as emphasis on the outdoor environment. Of general relevance and interest is the form of day care provided by forest day-care centers. Three ideas form the development of these centers placed in wild areas. First, throughout history, Norwegians have had a close attachment to nature and some parents want to provide their children with outdoor experiences at an early age. Second, urging children to play outdoors characterizes the image many parents have of a happy, healthy childhood. Third, provision of day care for children has always been restricted in western countries, forcing parents to invent types of service that can become part of an ecological system that promotes healthy development.The forest day-care centers developed recently represent a supplement to the wide typology of child care in the 21st century. The article outlines the connections between these ideas in general European and western history and Norwegian history and presents debate and decisions about a question dating from the last half of the 1980s. It concludes that the forest day-care centers are perhaps only a modern form of the original kindergarten concept, which started in Europe and America as gardens for children not gardens of children.     

Ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) gene typing for species identification.

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) typing of ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) genes was performed with a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for species identification. A variable region of the 28S ribosomal RNA gene was amplified with primers complementary to flanking sequences phylogenetically well conserved. The products of twelve animal DNAs (human, Japanese monkey, dog, cattle, pig, cat, rabbit, mouse, rat, chicken, frog, and fish) were separated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, each revealing a few bands ranging from 150 to 100 base pairs. The band patterns obtained from each DNA sample differed in number and size, which indicates the applicability of the method to species identification. Samples containing either as little as 1 pg of DNA or degraded DNA of 0.2 to 0.5 kb in length were able to give detectable bands. Postmortem human tissue DNAs were tested as an example. They showed a pattern identical to the human control one, which was distinct from those of the other animals examined.     

Dilemmas and choices in educational policies: The case of South Korea and Taiwan

In the face of a similar challenge for economic development, South Korea and Taiwan differed greatly in their approaches to educational reform. South Korea permitted a rapid expansion in educational system, allowed the development of academic education, and pursued a relatively high tuition policy for higher education. In contrast, Taiwan controlled the growth of education, promoted vocational education, and maintained a relatively low tuition policy for higher education. Political dynamics, rather than economic efficiency considerations, explain the divergent choices in the educational reforms of these two countries. Tun-jen Cheng is associate professor of government, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, 23187–8795. He has published extensively on politicl economy and democratic change in East Asian newly industrializing countries. He is currently working on institutional designs of Korean democracy.