Administering social welfare: the Reagan record.

A preliminary appraisal of the Reagan administration's management reforms in the social service sector reveals a mixed record. A variety of gains are evident as a result of both the restructuring of whole programs and the implementation of specific management techniques. An increased reliance on the use of block grants as a means of disbursing funds to the states has generally had the effect of streamlining delivery of services. Likewise, dramatic savings have been realized due to changes in the hospital payment system under Medicare. Improved financial management has benefited the Social Security system and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. On the other hand, controversial policies have been implemented with regard to Aid to Families with Dependent Children and youth employment services. Similarly, a number of important challenges, such as welfare reform, have gone unaddressed. And the administration has severely reduced research and development efforts, a policy that could have a sharply negative impact in the future. For some programs budget reductions have had the positive effect of forcing officials to concentrate available resources on high priority tasks; however, essential operations have been impaired in other cases.     

On the estimation of lay-time by measurements of rigor mortis

Measurements of the torgue to overcome rigor mortis on the legs of 101 male human cadavers at 5 degrees C are reported. There seems to exist an upper limit, which is dependent on the lay-time, above which no value occurs, but below which every value may be found. By calculating the 90% tolerance limits for lay-times grouped at 12-hourly intervals, this upper limit was found to decrease exponentially with lay-time. This may be used for the estimation of maximum lay-times from rigor mortis measurements.