Industry/University interaction for simulation-based process improvement

This paper describes an effort by industry and university partners to centralize manufacturing decision making through the development of generic simulation tools. This ongoing, cooperative process improvement initiative between the Industrial and Systems Engineering faculty at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) and Chrysler’s Huntsville Electronics Division (HED) permits the involved faculty to broaden their experience and technical expertise in electronics fabrication, while the industry partner benefits from the transfer of technical knowledge and advanced analysis methodologies from the university. The focus of the project is the definition of generic electronic manufacturing models that can be easily defined and implemented through common user-oriented interfaces, allowing users who are not familiar with simulation and simulation languages to address the needs of their particular functional areas.     

Tension, compression, and shear: directions, stresses, and outcomes of health care cost control

"Control" of health care costs is often portrayed as a struggle between external, "natural" forces pushing costs up and individuals, groups, and societies trying to resist the inevitable. This picture is false. Control includes strenuous efforts by some to raise costs, and by others to resist those increases, and/or to transfer costs to someone else. But all such forces originate in the purposes and interests of individuals and groups. Health care cost control is a struggle among conflicting interests over the priorities of a society, and claims of "inevitability" are simply part of the political rhetoric of that struggle. International experience supports certain conclusions. First, there is no basis for the claim that limits on expenditure growth must threaten the health of (some members of) a society. Second, there is a substantial variety of experience with cost control. Failure in the United States is often presented as evidence of the impossibility of control, but most other countries have succeeded. Finally, control requires the direct confrontation of interests, with substantial build-up of stress. Advocates of expansion are more successful if they can transform compressive forces into efforts to shift the burden onto someone else. Pressures from providers in every country for "privatization" and/or payment by users reflect this recognition of economic interest.     

Explaining “Pain and Suffering” Awards: The Role of Injury Characteristics and Fault Attributions

The present research explored factors thought to affect compensatory awards for non-economic ham (pain and suffering) in personal injury cases. Experiment 1 showed that the nature and severity of the plaintiffs injury had a strong effect on perceptions of the extent of harm suffered and on award amounts. The parties' relatively active or passive roles in causing the injury affected assessments of their degree of fault, but perceived fault had little influence on awards. Experiment 2 replicated with more varied cases the strong impact of injury severity on harm perception and on awards for pain and suffering. In both studies, the disability and the mental suffering associated with injuries were stronger predictors of awards than were pain and disfigurement.     

A: Reviews: General

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HADITH. By John Burton. (Islamic Surveys.) Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1994. 210 pp. £39.95 (hb); £16.95 (pb).

POLITICS, GENDER, AND THE ISLAMIC PAST: THE LEGACY OF ‘A'ISHA BINT ABI BAKR. By D. A. Spellberg. New York, Columbia University Press, 1995. 250 pp. $35.00.

MEDIEVAL ISMA'ILI HISTORY AND THOUGHT. Edited by Farhad Daftary. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996. 331 pp. £40.00

THE THRONE CARRIER OF GOD: THE LIFE AND THOUGHT OF ‘ALA’ AD‐DAWLA AS‐SIMNANI. By Jamal J. Elias. Albany, State University of New York Press, 1995. 260 pp. $16.95

OTTOMAN SEAPOWER AND LEVANTINE DIPLOMACY IN THE AGE OF DISCOVERY. By Palmira Brummett. (SUNY Series in the Social and Economic History of the Middle East.) New York, State University of New York Press, 1994. xvi, 285 pp. 2 maps, 7 plates. $19.95.

HAIFA: TRANSFORMATION OF AN ARAB SOCIETY, 1918–1939. By May Seikaly. London, I. B. Tauris, 1995. 284 pp. £39.50 (hb).

THE FORMATION OF MODERN SYRIA AND IRAQ. By Eliezer Tauber. London, Frank Cass, 1995. 427 pp. £30.00 (hb); £15.00 (pb).

IRAQ: POWER AND SOCIETY. Edited by Derek Hopwood, Habib Ishow and Thomas Koszinowski. (St Antony's Middle East monographs, 29.) Reading, Ithaca Press, 1993. viii, 400 pp. £30.00.

SECRET WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST: THE COVERT STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA, 1949–61. By Andrew Rathmell. London and New York, I. B. Tauris, 1995. 256 pp. £39.50.

LEBANON: A SHATTERED COUNTRY. By Elizabeth Picard. Translated from the French [Liban: État de discorde] by Franklin Philip. New York and London, Holmes & Meier, 1996. xii, 202 pp. £29.95.

THE ISLAMIST DILEMMA: THE POLITICAL ROLE OF ISLAMIST MOVEMENTS IN THE CONTEMPORARY ARAB WORLD. Edited by Laura Guazzone. Reading, Ithaca Press, 1995. 390 pp. £45.00.

ISLAM AND THE MYTH OF CONFRONTATION: RELIGION AND POLITICS IN THE MIDDLE EAST. By Fred Halliday. London and New York, I. B. Tauris, 1996. 256 pp. £35.00 (hb); £12.95 (pb).

THE MIDDLE EAST IN THE NEW WORLD ORDER. Edited by Haifaa A. Jawad. Basingstoke, St Martins Press/Macmillan, 1994. viii, 154 pp. $35 (hb).

CONFIDENCE BUILDING AND VERIFICATION: PROSPECTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST. Edited by Shai Feldman. (Jaffee Centre for Strategic Studies Study, 25.) Published jointly by the Jerusalem Post and Westview Press, Boulder, 1994. 255 pp. £28.50 (hb).

CHILDREN IN THE MUSLIM MIDDLE EAST. Edited by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea. Austin, University of Texas Press, 1995. xviii, 477 pp., photographs. $22.50 (hb).

THE HISTORY OF THE MAZRU'I DYNASTY OF MOMBASA. By Al‐Amin Bin ‘Ali Al Mazru'i. Translated and annotated by J. McL. Ritchie (Union Académique Interna‐tionale/Fontes Historiae Africanae: Series Arabica XI.) Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 1995. x, 182, 76 pp. £27.50 (hb).

AN INTRODUCTION TO ARAB POETICS. By Adonis. Translated from the Arabic by Catherine Cobham. London, Saqi Books, 1990. 108 pp.

ANTHOLOGY OF MODERN PALESTINIAN LITERATURE. Edited by Salma Khadra Jayyusi. New York, Columbia University Press, 1992. 744 pp. $34.95.

THE EYE OF THE MIRROR. By Liana Badr. Translated by Samira Kawar. (Arab Women Writers.) Reading, Garnet Publishing, 1995. 264 pp. £8.95 (pb).

THE GOLDEN CHARIOT. By Salwa Bakr. Translated by Dinah Manisty. (Arab Women Writers.) Reading, Garnet Publishing, 1995. 193 pp. £ 8.95 (pb).

THE STONE OF LAUGHTER. By Hoda Barakat. Translated by Sophie Bennett. (Arab Women Writers.) Reading, Garnet Publishing, 1995. 231 pp. £ 8.95 (pb).

AL‐KITAAB FII TA'ALLUM AL‐'ARABIYYA (A TEXTBOOK FOR BEGINNING ARABIC). By Kristen Brustad, Mahmoud Al‐Batal and Abbas Al‐Tonsi. Washington, DC, Georgetown University Press, 1995. Introduction 224 pp., textbook 480 pp., videotapes, cassettes.

DAS MUTAFI‐LAZISCHE. Edited by Silvia Kutscher, Johanna Mattissen and Anke Wodarg. (Arbeitspapier, Nr. 24, Neue Folge.) Köln, Institut für Sprachwissenschaft Universität zu Köln, 1995. 136 pp.

GRAMATIKA JEZYKA KRYMSKOTATARSKIEGO. By Henryk Jankowski. (Seria Jezykoznawstwo, Nr. 15.) Poznań, Uniwersytet Im. Adama Mickiewicza, 1992. xviii, 455 pp.

CULINARY CULTURES OF THE MIDDLE EAST. Edited by Richard Tapper and Sami Zubaida. London, New York, I. B. Tauris, 1994. 302 pp. £34.50 (hb).     

Reviews

Roman Szporluk (ed.), National Identity and Ethnicity in Russia and the New States of Eurasia. New York and London: M.E. Sharpe, 1994, xiii + 328 pp., £40.00 h/b, £16.00 p/b.

Paul Kolstoe, Russians in the Former Soviet Republics. London: Hurst, 1995, xii + 340 pp., £35.00.

Ronald Grigor Suny, The Révenge of the Past. Nationalism, Revolution and the Collapse of the Soviet Union. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993, xix + 207 pp., £25.00 h/b, £10.95 p/b.

Ian Bremmer & Ray Taras (eds), Nations and Politics in the Soviet Successor States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, xxvii + 557 pp., £55.00 h/b, £17.95 p/b.

Charles A. Kupchan (ed.), Nationalism and Nationalities in the New Europe. Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, 1995, xi + 224 pp., £31.50 h/b, £11.95 p/b.

Christopher Williams, AIDS in Post‐Communist Russia and its Successor States. Aldershot: Avebury, 1995, xvi + 216 pp., £35.00.

Amin Saikal & William Maley (eds), Russia in Search of its Future. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, xii + 239 pp., £30.00 h/b, £10.95 p/b.

Marco de Andreis & Francesco Calogero, The Soviet Nuclear Weapon Legacy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995, x + 130 pp., £25.00.

Eva Haraszti‐Taylor, The Hungarian Revolution of 1956. A Collection of Documents from the British Foreign Office. London: Astra Press, 1995, xxxii + 404 pp., £5.95.

Julian Cooper, Maureen Perrie & E. A. Rees (eds), Soviet History, 1917–53: Essays in Honour of R. W. Davies. London and Basingstoke: St Martin's Press, 1995, xxviii + 273 pp. £45.00.

Tsentral'nyi gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Sovetskoi Armii. Putevoditel’ v dvukh tomakh. Minneapolis: East View Publications, Vol. 1, v + 421 pp., Vol. 2, vi + 531 pp., 1991, 1993, £59.00.

Vladimir N. Brovkin, Behind the Front Lines of the Civil War: Political Parties and Social Movements in Russia, 1918–1922, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994, xiv + 455 pp.

Semion Lyandres, The Bolsheviks’ ‘German Gold’ Revisited: An Inquiry into the 1917 Accusations. Pittsburgh: Carl Beck Papers No. 1106, Center for Russian and East European Studies, University of Pittsburgh, 1995, 132 pp., no price.

Al Richardson (ed.), In Defence of the Russian Revolution: A Selection of Bolshevik Writings. 1917–1923. London: Porcupine Press, 1995, xvi + 287 pp., £12.99.

Neil Robinson, Ideology and the Collapse of the Soviet System. A Critical History of Soviet Ideological Discourse. Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1995, x + 227 pp., £45.00.

Alexsandras Shtromas (ed.), The End of “Isms"? Reflections on the Fate of Ideological Politics after Communism's Collapse. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1995, 234 pp., £13.99.

Simon Tormey, Making Sense of Tyranny: Interpretations of Totalitarianism. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995, vi + 199 pp., £7.95.

David L. Hoffmann, Peasant Metropolis: Social Identities in Moscow, 1929–1941. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1994, xv + 282 pp., £26.95.

Heather Hogan, Forging Revolution: Metalworkers, Managers, and the State in St. Petersburg, 1890–1914. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1993, xviii + 319 pp., £32.50.

Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer (ed.), Culture Incarnate: Native Anthropology from Russia. Armonk, New York, London: M.E. Sharpe, 1995, xii + 270 pp.

Michael D. Kennedy (ed.), Envisioning Eastern Europe: Postcommunist Cultural Studies. Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1994, 249 pp., £30.00.

Blanche H. Gelfant, Cross‐Cultural Reckonings: A Triptych of Russian, American, and Canadian Texts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, x + 190 pp., £35.00.     

Health care in Canada: patterns of funding and regulation

During the 1970s the share of health care expenditure in Canadian GNP remained roughly stable, in the range of 7-71/2 percent of GNP, in marked contrast to its escalation in most other countries (the U.S. in particular) and to previous Canadian experience. The shift to a stable pattern coincided with the completion of the Canadian system of universal comprehensive public hospital and medical care insurance. This paper explores how and why the public insurance system served to contain cost escalation. It then discusses the inadequacy of expenditure experience per se as a basis for health system evaluation--the same data will support claims of both "underfunding" and "spiralling costs." More serious questions involve the influence of alternative patterns of health care funding and delivery on the effectiveness and efficiency of care provision, and the resulting distributional patterns of care and income. A brief sketch is given of the present situation and future possibilities of Canadian health care under these heads.     

B. Reviews: general

A HISTORY OF THE ARAB PEOPLES. By ALBERT HOURANI. London, Faber and Faber, 1991. xviii, 551pp. £25 (hb).

STUDIES IN ARAB HISTORY. Edited by DEREK HOPWOOD. (St.Antony's/Macmillan series.) London, Macmillan, 1990. 189pp. 5 plates and 3 figures.

A HISTORY OF THE SELJUKS: ?BRAHIM KAFESOGLU'S INTERPRETATION AND THE RESULTING CONTROVERSY. Translated and edited By GARY LEISER. Carbondale and Edwardsville, Southern Illinois University Press, 1988. 208pp. Genealogical charts, maps in end covers. $29.95.

THE HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN THE LATIN KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM. By JOSHUA PRAWER. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1988. xv, 310pp. 5 maps.

ARAB HISTORY AND THE NATION STATE: A STUDY IN MODERN ARAB HISTORIOGRAPHY 1820–1980. By YOUSSEF M. CHOUEIRI. (Exeter Arabic and Islamic Series.) London & New York, Routledge, 1989. xix, 238pp. £35.00

THE END OF EMPIRE IN THE MIDDLE EAST: BRITAIN'S RELINQUISHMENT OF POWER IN HER LAST THREE ARAB DEPENDENCIES. By GLEN BALFOUR‐PAUL. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991. xxiv, 278pp. £30.00.

THE LETTERS OF T.E. LAWRENCE. Edited by MALCOLM BROWN. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1991. xi, 564pp. £8.95 (pb).

A PRINCE OF OUR DISORDER: THE LIFE OF T.E. LAWRENCE. By JOHN H. MACK. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1990. xxvi, 561pp. £9.95 (pb).

UN GRAND RABBIN SEPHARADE EN POLITIQUE 1892–1923. Presented and edited by ESTHER BENBASSA. Mesnil‐sur‐l'Estrée, CNRS, 1990. 263pp.

THE SUPREME MUSLIM COUNCIL: ISLAM UNDER THE BRITISH MANDATE FOR PALESTINE. By URI M. KUPFERSCHMIDT. Leiden, Brill, 1987.

AFTER THE EAGLES LANDED: THE YEMENITES OF ISRAEL. By HERBERT S. LEWIS. Boulder, Westview Press, 1989. xix, 277pp., photographs, glossary.

LAND BEFORE HONOUR: PALESTINIAN WOMEN IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES. By KITTY WARNOCK. (Women in Society: A Feminist List.) London, Macmillan Educational Press, 1990. 199pp.

PEASANT POLITICS IN MODERN EGYPT: THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THE STATE. By NATHAN BROWN. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1990. 280pp. 2 maps. £25.00.

SOCIETY AND STATE IN THE GULF AND ARAB PENINSULA. By KHALDOUN HASAN AL‐NAQEEB. London and New York, Routledge, 1990. xvii, 206 pp. £35

THE TURBULENT GULF. By LIESL GRAZ. London, I.B. Tauris, 1990. xi, 312pp. £17.95.

IRAN: THE KHOMEINI REVOLUTION (COUNTRIES IN CRISIS). Edited by MARTIN WRIGHT. Contributors: Nick Danziger, Martin Howe, Baqer Moin, Reza Navabpour, Sir Anthony Parsons, Vahe Petrossian, Amit Roy and Martin Wright. London, Longman, 1989. 128pp. Maps, ills. £6.95.

ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS (COUNTRIES IN CRISIS). Edited by MARTIN WRIGHT. Contributors: Paul Cossali, Roger Hardy, Lawrence Joffe, Noah Lucas, David McDowall, Elfi Pallis, Martin Wright. London, Longman, 1989. 131pp. Maps, ills. £6.95.

MAJOR POLITICAL EVENTS IN IRAN, IRAQ AND THE ARABIAN PENINSULA 1945–1990. By TREVOR MOSTYN. New York & London, Facts on File, 1991. xii, 308pp. £14.95.

WOMEN AT WORK IN THE GULF: A CASE STUDY OF BAHRAIN. By MUNIRA A. FAKHRO. London, Kegan Paul International. 184pp. £45.00

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF TURKEY: DEBT, ADJUSTMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY. Edited by TOSUN ARICANLI and DANI RODRIK. Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1990. 275pp. £40 (hb).

AFGHANISTAN: A COUNTRY LAW STUDY. By GHOLAM H. VAFAI. Washington, Library of Congress, 1988. 63pp.

RESISTANCE AND CONTROL IN PAKISTAN. By AKBAR S. AHMED. London & New York, Routledge, 1991. xxiii, 207pp. £12.99 (pb).

MASTERING ARABIC: By JANE WIGHTWICK and MAHMOUD GAAFAR. (Macmillan Master Series.) London, Macmillan, 1990. 370pp.

FROM CODE‐SWITCHING TO BORROWING: A CASE STUDY OF MOROCCAN ARABIC. By JEFFREY HEATH. (Library of Arabic Linguistics, monograph 9.) London, Kegan Paul International, 1990. 328pp.

ARISTOTELIAN LOGIC AND THE ARABIC LANGUAGE IN ALFARABI. By SHUKRI B. ABED. Albany, State University of New York Press, 1991. xxv, 201pp.

OGHUSICA AUS IRAN. By GERHARD DOERFER, WOLFRAM HESCHE, JAMSHID RAVANYAR. Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz, 1990. ix, 146pp. DM 56.‐

ABBASID BELLES LETTRES. Edited by Julia Ashtiany, T.M. Johnstone, J.D. Latham, R.B. Serjeant and G. Rex Smith. (The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, Vol.II, 1.) Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990. xiii, 517pp.

PENSEE MYTHIQUE, IDEOLOGIE ET ASPIRATIONS SOCIALES DANS UN CONTE DES MILLE ET UNE NUITS. By PATRICE COUSSONNET. (Supplément aux Annales Islamologiques—Cahier no. 13). Cairo, Institut français d'archéologie orientale, 1989. 67 pp. 6 plates.

THE MEADOWS OF GOLD: THE ABBASIDS. By MAS'UDI. Tr. and ed. by PAUL LUNDE and CAROLINE STONE. London and New York, Kegan Paul International, 1989. x, 469pp. £30.00

POESlA ESTRÓFICA (CEJELES Y/O MUWA??AHAT) ATRIBUIDA AL MlSTICO GRANADINO A?‐?u?TARI (SIGLO XIII d.C.).(Preedición, traducción, estudio e índices.) By F. CORRIENTE. Madrid, CSIC, Instituto de Filología, Departamento de Estudios Árabes, 1988. [6], 379pp.

ISLAM, THE STRAIGHT PATH. By JOHN L. ESPOSITO. Oxford University Press, 1988. viii, 230pp. £6.95.

TRADITIONAL ISLAM IN THE MODERN WORLD. By SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR. London, KPI, 1987. x, 335pp.

IN A CALIPH'S KITCHEN: MEDIAEVAL ARABIC COOKING FOR THE MODERN GOURMET. By DAVID WAINES. London, Riad el‐Rayyes Books, 1989. 119pp. 44 colour plates. £14.00.