Pulmonary embolism: a rare cause of sudden infant death

Pulmonary embolism can be observed at any age, but it occurs very rarely in the infant. The authors report the case of a 12-month-old boy who suddenly died during clinical improvement of gastroenteritis associated with otitis. Autopsy showed signs of dehydration and acute left pulmonary embolism, which was the cause of death. Thrombosis of the inferior vena cava extending into renal veins was seen. In this case, plasma hyperosmolality caused by dehydration might have favored the formation of venous thromboses. The various risk factors of pulmonary embolism in the child are discussed, including genetic factors.     

The European Central Bank: Independence, accountability and strategy: A review

This paper reviews research on central banking and monetary policy, with special emphasis on the position of the future European Central Bank. Nowadays, it is often thought that an independent central bank with an explicit mandate to aim for price stability constitutes an important institutional device to assure price stability. Indeed, the ECB will be one of the most independent central banks as follows from the codings of various indicators measuring legal independence. Still, it does not follow straightforwardly from the literature that the Statute of the ECB is optimal. It is also argued that the accountability of the ECB is poorly arranged for in comparison with that of several national central banks. Finally, the discussion about the monetary strategy of the ECB is reviewed.     

西部大开发中的城乡结构与城市化发展

在西部大开发的战略性基点上 ,具有核心意义的问题不是区域经济问题而是民族发展问题。西部少数民族问题与农民问题的交织 ,使城乡结构调整与城市化发展成为实现西部大开发战略意义的最基本和最迫切的问题。应突破以往的城市化思路和模式 ,以制度创新作为整个战略选择的基点并把中等城市的发展作为主攻方向 ,才能真正实现西部大开发的战略性意义     

Nonprofit organizations as contracted local social service providers in eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States

Today nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are an important provider of social services in some countries in the eastern Europe‐CIS region. Based on field reports from seven countries in the region, we find that the pattern is highly variable, however; and only in central Europe and Croatia are local governments contracting with NPOs to deliver services. More commonly, local governments give grants to NPOs for this purpose. But in some countries local governments provide essentially no support to NPOs for social service delivery. This article outlines the case for NPOs being contracted as service providers, and inventories the current situation in the region with respect to local governments. It concludes with a discussion of the possible reasons for the low incidence of contracting by local governments with NPOs as service providers. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new method for the evaluation of matches in non-recombining genomes: application to Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat (STR) haplotypes in European males

A 9-locus microsatellite framework (minimal haplotype), previously developed for forensic purposes so as to facilitate stain analysis, personal identification and kinship testing, has been adopted for the establishment of a large reference database of male European Y-chromosomal haplotypes. The extent of population stratification pertaining to this database, an issue crucial for its practical forensic application, was assessed through analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) of the 20 regional samples included. Despite the notion of some significant haplotype frequency differences, which were found to correlate with known demographic and historic features of Europeans, AMOVA generally revealed a high level of genetic homogeneity among the populations analyzed. Owing to their high diversity, however, accurate frequency estimation is difficult for Y-STR haplotypes when realistic (i.e. moderately sized) datasets are being used. As expected, strong pair-wise and higher order allelic associations were found to exist between all markers studied, implying that haplotype frequencies cannot be estimated as products of allele frequencies. A new extrapolation method was therefore developed which treats haplotype frequencies as random variables and generates estimates of the underlying distribution functions on the basis of closely related haplotypes. This approach, termed frequency 'surveying', is based upon standard population genetics theory and can in principle be applied to any combination of markers located on the Y-chromosome or in the mitochondrial genome. Application of the method to the quality assured reference Y-STR haplotype database described herein will prove very useful for the evaluation of positive trace-donor matches in forensic casework.     

The first algorithm for linear programming: An analysis of Kantorovich's method

An analysis is given of Kantorovich's method of resolving multipliers. It is shown that the method is equivalent to a parametric method but that it is also equivalent with the simplex method with a special rule for the choice of the new basic variable.     

Cognitive problem-solving training to improve the child-care judgment of child neglectful parents

Child neglect, the failure to adequately meet a youngster's care needs, is the most frequent form of child maltreatment reported to welfare authorities. However, there have been few empirical reports of treatment outcomes for adjudicated, child neglectful parents. In the current study, an initial assessment of three neglectful parents revealed substantial deficits in cognitive problem-solving skills related to child care judgment. Treatment, consisting of modeling, shaping, practice, and feedback was used to improve each parent's child care problem-solving skills in a multiple baseline design. Skill enhancement was also found for untrained (generalization) problem situations, and independent caseworker ratings of each family's functioning provided external validation of the intervention's clinical impact.