THE ADMINISTRATION OF FRENCH NATIONAL ECONOMIC PLANNING: LESSONS FOR AUSTRALIA

"We are therefore giving priority to setting up economic planning machinery with industry and employee co-operation to restore strong but balanced economic growth."—E. G. Whitlam, The Australian , 14th May, 1973.     

Does carcass enrichment alter community structure of predaceous and parasitic arthropods? A second test of the arthropod saturation hypothesis at the Anthropology Research Facility in Knoxville, Tennessee

In a second test of an arthropod saturation hypothesis, we analyzed if the on-campus Anthropology Research Facility (ARF) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with its 20+ yr history of carcass enrichment, is comparable to non-enriched sites in community structure of predatory and parasitic arthropods that prey upon the sarcosaprophagous fauna. Over a 12-day period in June 1998, using pitfall traps and sweep nets, 10,065 predaceous, parasitic, and hematophagous (blood-feeding) arthropods were collected from freshly euthanized pigs (Sus scrofa L.) placed at ARF and at three surrounding sites various distances away (S2-S4). The community structure of these organisms was comparable in most paired-site tests with respect to species composition, colonization rates, and evenness of pitfall-trap abundances on a per carcass basis. Site differences were found in rarefaction tests of both sweep-net and pitfall-trap taxa and in tests of taxonomic evenness and ranked abundances of sweep-net samples. Despite these differences, no evidence was found that the predatory/parasitic fauna at ARF was impoverished with fewer but larger populations as a result of carcass enrichment. Comparison of the sarcosaprophagous and predatory/parasitic faunas revealed a tighter (and more predictable) linkage between carrion feeders (sarcosaprovores) and their carrion than between carrion feeders and their natural enemies (predators and parasitoids), leading us to conclude that ARF is more representative of surrounding sites with respect to the sarcosaprovore component than to the predatory/parasitic component within the larger carrion-arthropod community.     

Suicidal asphyxiation by using pure helium gas: case report, review, and discussion of the influence of the internet

Suffocation by inhaled gases has been reported involving a variety of gases. We report a case of suicidal asphyxiation by forced replacement of oxygen with helium by using a complex homemade mask. In this case, a young woman researched suicide on the Internet and found an advocated method of suicide using helium. To our knowledge, there is only 1 previously reported case of suicidal asphyxia by using helium.     

Using Ecological Inference Point Estimates as Dependent Variables in Second-Stage Linear Regressions

The practice of using point estimates produced by the King ecologicalinference technique as dependent variables in second-stage linearregressions leads to second-stage results that, in general,are inconsistent. This conclusion holds even when all assumptionsbehind King's ecological technique are satisfied. Second-stageinconsistency is a consequence of the fact that King-based pointestimates of disaggregated quantities contain errors correlatedwith the true quantities the estimates measure. Our findingson second-stage inconsistency, as well as a fix that we propose,follow from econometric theory in conjunction with an analysisof simulated and real ecological data sets.     

Revealing Preferences: Empirical Estimation of a Crisis Bargaining Game with Incomplete Information

We develop an empirical estimator directly from an extensive-formcrisis bargaining game with incomplete information and discussits features and limitations. The estimator makes it possibleto draw inferences about states' payoffs from observationaldata on crisis outcomes while remaining faithful to the theorizedstrategic and informational structure. We compare this estimatorto one based on a symmetric information version of the samegame, using the quantal response equilibrium proposed in thiscontext by Signorino (1999, American Political Science Review93:279–298). We then address issues of identificationthat arise in trying to learn about actors' utilities by observingtheir play of a strategic game. In general, a number of identifyingrestrictions are needed in order to pin down the distributionof payoffs and the effects of covariates on those payoffs.